Yvonne headed home to seek out work for the winter, flying out from Palma an hour before Dave and Al flew in to crew for the last stage of this year's journey. Yvonne and I had worked with them both during the Commonwealth games. It was good now to relax and spend time in the sun, going over the old times and planning for new.

From Palma the three of us sailed back to Cabrerra then up the east coast of Majorca, stopping at Porto Petro, Alcudia, Puerto Pollensa and Cala Sant Vincent before an overnight passage back to the mainland of Spain. Sant Carles de la Rapita the final destination for the winter.

We enjoyed a couple of really good sails, and were pleasantly surprised by the scale and grandeur of the scenery in the north of Majorca. Al a competent day skipper handled the boat instinctively while Dave saved his energies to teach us backgammon - all night!

In years gone by I windsurfed with Dave but had heard of his exploits as a soleboarder during previous cruising holidays. We determined to experiment with this on Malibu. We finally made a soleboard from a piece of plywood and took turns water-skiing off the back of the boat outside Sant Carles. Lot of laughs, the board needs a few modifications, but the principle was proven and allowed us to feel we were stupid twenty something's again!