I have not written on here because I'm not sure anyone would want to read a sailing blog where no sailing is done, no landfalls reached and there are no sunsets over the bay! However, lots of people have been asking me how Andy is so I'll do the latest medical report!

We have been amazed at the speed that things have been happening since we got back to the UK. We saw my brother's GP the day after we got back and he referred us to a renal specialist for the ? tumour on his kidney and a haematologist for his abnormal blood results and the pathological fracture of his spinal vertebrae. Within a week he had had a wrath of more complicated blood tests, a skeletal survey, bone marrow biopsy, CT and this week an MRI of his spine. The good news is that the kidney tumour is only a cyst with no sign of malignancy. The bad news is he definitely has multiple myeloma.

Treatment for this is pretty harsh. Starting in 10 days, he has to have monthly cycles of chemotherapy, steroids and an infusion to strengthen his bones. Lots of side effects as you can imagine but they'll give him tablets for that as well. There will be no hair loss as the doses are not huge which is a small bonus. After 4-6 months of this, he will have a bone marrow transplant and three months after that may/ should/will go into remission. We can then make future plans.

We're in a bit of a weird place as you can imagine. One day we are completely focussed on sailing the next bit of our trip home to Australia, checking weather sites, planning rendez-vous with other boats in different places, reading up on the Canaries and Cap Verdes, writing lists of what provisioning we'll need for 5 people for 20 days when we do the Atlantic crossing,where to go in the Caribbean. A few days later and we're in Portsmouth looking for a flat to rent and learning as much as we can about this disease and what to expect.

We're pretty positive and those of you who know Andy will know he'll crack this like he does everything. Thanks for all your messages and positive vibes!! Keep 'em coming plus any jokes, stupid videos and general ranting that you know he'll enjoy! And be sure he'll be doing the same!

The photo above,by the way, is sunset over the Solent! Not taken from our boat and might not be the Med but pretty fabulous just the same!