I've joined with a few other cruisers in 'Raft-Up'. Raft-Up is a way of getting cruisers together to share experiences and hopefully share them with those of you that take the time to read our blogs. Each month there is a different topic that some members will write about on their own blogs and link to the others so that those of you who are interested can read more if you want to.

This month's topic is 'hobbies'. Andy and I don't consider ourselves to have any particular hobbies, the word conjuring up images of stamp collecting! However we do regularly get asked what we do all day and as we seem to fill our time with no difficulty there must be something that we do.

Our days vary with the seasons. In the winter we spend a lot of time walking (if the weather is good) and visiting our friends down in Elounda. Andy is keen with his camera and we regularly have to stop for 'flickr moments' (www.flickr.com/nornabiron) when out on our walks. Summer days are taken up with swimming and sun-baking, we can easily waste a day or two by just lazing around on deck and occasionally jumping in for a cooler.

My main hobby before we left the UK was reading and this is probably still the case. We are lucky that Norna was built with enough shelving to house 300 books. When we left I had a small collection of 12 paperbacks. I'd read them by the time we got to Gibraltar (a week later) and managed to swap them in the marina. Since then our collection has grown to the extent that we now have approximately 150 books on the shelves waiting to be read. Andy wasn't a reader, he reckons he had only read three or four books before we came sailing, he now regularly gets through a book a month, he'd read more but his main hobby seems to be sleeping! Since leaving the UK I have bought one book, the bookswaps in bars are great and swapping books is also a good excuse to get to know other people in anchorages.

I love cooking and am always trying something new. Luckily for us we both love food and are willing to try almost anything. However there is a downside - we then have to fit some exercise in to keep the weight off! We try to keep fit by having an hour's walk each day and by swimming whenever we are in a clean anchorage. I also step for 30 minutes each day. I had to buy a hydraulic stepper as I was wearing the soleboards!

Andy has bought himself a speargun and can easily get through a couple of hours each day hunting for our dinner with varying success. Boat maintenance takes up an hour or so each day, Andy enjoys this and says that he is playing with his life size meccano set!

When we retired in 2008 we planned not to work again, however we've found that although my pension allows us to live well, it doesn't stretch to updating the boat. Hence we now do a bit of flotilla boat cleaning one day a week. We have also invested in a fixed line diving system, Andy uses it to keep Norna's bum clean but it also earns us a meal out every now and then if we get a job clearing a prop or cleaning another boat under the water line. This winter we invested in a Sailrite sewing machine and have started to do sail repairs as well. Andy likes to keep busy and is enjoying broadening his skills.

Reading back over this shows that Andy has lots to do and I mainly swim and read! Luckily that suits us both and four years after leaving the UK we are not bored yet!

The other members of this month's Raft-Up are listed below with the dates that they will publish on their blogs.

June 1: svnorthfork.blogspot.com
June 2: ploddinginparadise.blogspot.com
June 3: morejoyeverywhere.blogspot.com
June 4: sailcelebration.blogspot.com
June 5: sailblogs.com/member/nornabiron
June 6: lifeafloatarchives.blogspot.com
June 7: svnorthfork.blogspot.com guest blogger LeuCat
June 8: sv-totem.com
June 9: svnorthfork.blogspot.com -