Back in May, spotted a crew call for a delivery Narbonne - Glasson. It caught my eye cos I was raised just up the river from Glasson Dock, and Popeye was sorely in need of "a project", to get his bum off the couch (Roland Garros, Wimbledon, Tour de France, and other pensioner traps..) Popeye went "why not", so we put together his sailing CV, and contacted the skipper.Who turns out to be another Lancastrian expat, married to a 'furriner"! A couple of phone calls, e-mails and a visit later; everything was sorted, and Popeye flew out to Carcassonne on Friday the 13 ( superstitious, us?)

The good ship Escape ii left Gruissan on the evening of the 14th and arrived in Soller, Mallorca at 02:00 on the 17th, having tacked most of the way, with occasionally 30 knts on the nose .Rather him than me!

Quick pit stop at Soller, just the time for Popeye to meet up with an old mate, then off in the evening for Formentera, where they arrived at 18:00 today (or nearly, Formentera was full, so they're anchored off an adjacent islet).

Seems like morale on board is good -no wind today, so "Nestor le motor" did all the work while the 3 mariners did justice to the skipper's wife's cooking. Forgot to say that they live in an extremely gastronomic part of SW France, and the boat is well stocked with home made conserves. And I'd hoped that Popeye might come back a shadow of his former self.... Ah well, he has been drinking lots of water, so he says (but maybe with lots of Pastis?)

After Formentera, San Jose, Gib, Portugal, Biscay, Irish Sea. Sounds like the shipping forecast!

So here I am , home alone... sniff. Not quite - son n° 2 is still at home, and has just added a new kitten to the feline establishment of 2 matrons. Little Gus is worse than a baby, cries when he's alone, hence when I was on kitten sitting duty yesterday, had to sleep on the couch in the sitting room. At least I didn't need a lee cloth.