Site updated: 30th Apr 08. Current location: Nazaré Portugal Click for Latest Update  Your comments  welcomed. Click here to see a map of last 100 visitors

Mithril sailing down the Belgian coast.

Hello and welcome to visitors from

This is the cruising website of Barry and Janet and covers our liveaboard travels from 2003 when we both retired and moved aboard our sailing yacht. You can read of travels aboard the yachts Mithril and Ruby Tuesday (since autumn 2005) together with facts, pictures and observations of the people and places on our route. We've also got a few totally factual pages relating to us, the boat and technical topics relevant to cruising sailors and would-be cruising sailors. The buttons above give quick access to the named pages and a site map is also available and might help a first time visitor. Also note, if a picture has a wide blue edge then click it to see an enlargement.

We hope you enjoy your visit here, and if you do, or find it useful, then please sign our guest book. (why not   sign it anyway, then I can at least see who is visiting the site.)

Latest: We are now on route North and have a few passages under our belt. Two passages took us to Cascais (Lisbon) where we were storm bound for one week; then on to Peniche and Nazare where we have again been stuck, also for one week, due to heavy waves closing most of the harbours to the North. But, as you can read and see, we've had a great time. Click for Latest Update

Europes SW corner, Cape St Vincent.

Some brief information about us.

For the last four years, since we took early retirement, we have lived aboard our sailing yachts Mithril and Ruby Tuesday. The first winter saw us readying Mithril for the trips of a lifetime, ones which would have no boundaries and so a first year saw us visit the Baltic and, during 3500 sea miles, completely circle it and returned to Eastbourne on the UK's South coast for the winter. We were older, wiser and we had a richness of memories from our first year afloat.  Our second year took us towards warmer climates, initially along to Dartmouth and across to the Channel Islands, for the Liberation Day celebrations, then to France and a coastal sail round into Biscay on another voyage of discovery. We realised many have travelled this route but for us it was the first time we had sailed South of the Channel Islands.

Our first year involved so much time spent in preparation that we did not sit back and evaluate Mithril's ability to support two liveaboards for a sustained period; indeed, we might have even glossed over her lack of living space during our zeal to be up and away.

Ruby T sailing nicely along the Algarve coast.

To many, therefore, it will not be a surprise to find that as of August 2005 we have changed Mithril for a shiny new Dufour 40 Performance which we have called Ruby Tuesday.

No details here but we blame our complacency born of the French summer sun, a super Dufour salesman named Chris, and Dufour's willingness to offer a part-exchange deal on Mithril. Oh yes, and the fact that a cancelled order was looking for a buyer so offering an almost immediate delivery.

If you visit our log (see Log button at top) which is actually more of a travelogue, you will gain an insight into our travels over the last 4 years. Writing it has, in the main, been fun for us although at times difficult owing to the diversity of our readership. We have  sailing friends wanting to hear of our weathering storms and tempests and relatives pleased to read about summer sun and tranquil harbours. Luckily we've had a bit of both so maybe our writing has struck the necessary balance, and looking at the visitors counter (top right of page) this surely shows we have got some thing correct.

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