John and Elsie have made good use of their skills since they both passed the Yachtmaster exam in 2005, they keep in touch by email which gives me great pleasure. The following are extracts from their most recent email in December 2006 and another in August 2007.

'We spent last winter in the Bahamas and the summer in the Chesapeake bay in the US the high spot of which was taking Ichi Feet into Washington DC for a week, it was a two day treck up the Potomac river, Capitol Yacht Club is right in the centre of the city walking distance from all the monuments and the Capitol building itself, and next door to the fish market with super seafood. Watching the antics of some US sailors... one in particular secured his bow line, motored back against it and then blamed prop walk when his stern kicked out, nearly bashing the boat on the opposite dock... makes us realise what excellent training we have had, thank you.... The more we sail, the more we appreciate your methods and techniques.
We recently witnessed a British Armed services yacht mooring alongside us with 14 crew on board. They had crossed the Atlantic and had been sailing together for over a month, some for 3 months. There was a cross wind so docking was tricky, but the skipper had not given jobs to her many crew and ended up yelling at them because things started to go wrong. Definately not in the Martin Northey handbook on How to Sail, part one!! We are now spending till May cruising the Caribbean again, and then back to the Med for a couple of years, and see where we go from there'.

'We are currently (August 2007) at anchor off Porto Stephano working our way down to Rome to meet up with friends. I thought the weather in the Med was supposed to be nice and warm, but its only 25C at the moment and we have had 3 big thunderstorms here in the last 3 days. It may be a local effect as nothing is forecast but it certainly can blow.

The sail down from Elba was 'interesting'. A force 3-4 was forecast but half way out it picked up and was soon blowing a 7. Close hauled for 6 hrs half of it F7 is not very comfortable, but at least we arrived earlier than expected.
Sailing in the med is so different from the Caribbean its unbelievable. The seas round the north & south of the islands usually cut up and are rough with unpredictable winds to match. There has been at least one gale a week from the bay of Lyon that often works its way down to Corsica and Sardinia that you really need to be on your toes.

Martin, if you ever tire of Portugal please go to Corsica, Elba and Italy. They just don't know how to anchor. We have genuinely lost count of the number of boats adrift since we got here.It must be well over 20. Some just drift a few yards, others have gone about half a mile, unbelievably in broad daylight with the owners on board. We even saw one public minded skipper 'grab' a passing drifter(a 40ft charter boat with no one on board), walk it to his stern and then cast it adrift!

We were in Azzure Elba 4 nights ago and a thunderstorm arrived after dark. It was chaos. Several boats behind tangled anchors with a drifter, others were dragging at either side. It was a very dramatic sight lit by the flashes into stark silhouette against the rain flattened seas as boats pirouetted, met and parted like reluctant partners at a macabre dance.( I may be tempting fate, but so far we have not dragged anchor once, but I am touching wood, and have fingers crossed.) Seriously they don't know how to anchor. Often still moving forward with the anchor on the bottom, rarely paying it out but just dropping a bit of chain straight down, almost never setting the anchor, and never ever have I seen anyone take bearings. Invariably they will try to squeeze into a small space ignorant of turning circles of different boats, or it seems even their own boat.

Its never a dull moment though, apart from dragging anchors we've had a boat 100yds away in a marina catch fire over night, and another run aground on a break water in front of us, maybe a gust of wind caught him out!
We've been told it like this in July & August when the French & Italians go on holiday so hopefully things should be improving soon and getting much safer for the other sailors.

John, Elsie & Ichi Feet are at present (May 2009) in Malta preparing to cruise on the Croatian coast this summer, to get up to date information on their progress go to their excellent web site by clicking here. Their site is not just about their sailing but also about all the interesting places that they visit ashore and supported by lots of very good photographs. Martin.

June 20th 2009 I received an interesting and amusing update from Elsie and John in Croatia.......

Hi as you can guess we are currently in Croatia. It is said to be a brilliant sailing location so we thought we would give it a try, as you will see below with mixed sucess.

We did manage to sail to Sibenik and visit the KRKA National park. To get there we had to navigate up a river and under a road bridge with just 6ft clearance. You should have seen our crews faces, mind I think mine was a picture as well, 3 charts all gave the bridge different heights and we had to be dead centre because of the curve under the bridge. A fellow yacht passing at the same time stopped to wait for the smash which fortunately didn't come. But we were close! Still it was more clearance than when we sail up the Potomac to Washington (less than 3 ft there).

We are just a few miles from Split and Trogir, both lovely old towns which we have managed to explore. While in Trogir we were lucky to see a local wedding party on its way to the Cathedral led through the local market and streets with a small band. Earlier we had sat in the church as the organist and choir were practicing and it was a wonderful completely unplanned half hour.I had not realised how much i missed hearing a good choir. At least with our sort of roaming we can make the most of things like this we come across.

Our Marina is in a large bay and there are 7 Castles around its shore, but Gomilika is the largest. Its a wonderful fortified little medieval town with a watch tower complete with warning bell to advise peasants working in the fields of impending danger, and a draw bridge, built out on a spit of land a 100 ft into the sea. It seems to have been lived in continually with over a dozen houses part of the fortification yet virtually un changed for hundreds of years. Some in a state of near collapse, able to put your hand through gaps in the stone walls, one with outer walls like this was still lived in.  It has a small promanantry connecting it to the land and of course a small harbour for local rowing and fishing boats.

Puting all this beauty into context, 400yds the other side of the marina is a derilict cement works!  I have to say i am very disappointed..... Here we are in Dalmatia, where they named a country and a film after a dog, 101 Dalmatians etc. but not seen one yet (except on a post card) It seems we have to go to the pics to see one.

One night last week we had a thunder and lightning storm overhead for 3 hours. Fortunately we weren't hit but lightning was crashing on all sides less than half a mile away, both fork and sheet and at one stage made a circle of lightning in the clouds overhead. The rain was like needles with over 40kt winds, and after securing everything as best we could we 'enjoyed' hot chocolate in the cockpit while the 'cat' at the side of us pounded on the marina pontoon, but we were unable to do anything to help. Come morning we were undamaged, but the cat had a very expensive repair needed.

When the weather improves we plan to head North to the Kornati Islands which is said to resemble a moonscape of bare white islands so will let you know what we find. Unfortunately the Croats have again found a way of making more money from us boaters and as well as paying for a licence to sail in their waters, (the permit lasts 12 months, but the immigration permit only covers 3 months and then we must leave the country or risk impounding of the boat, Croat logic!), the Kornati is in a national park so again we have to pay approx £30 a day just to be there, on top of anchoring and marina fees, navigation fees and light dues, and tourist taxes applied every day we are on land in Croatia. They certainly have found a way to fleece the yachties.

So mid August we will be heading South again to leave Croatia, probably explore around the heel of Italy for a while, and then back to Sicily and anchor in the bay of Syracuse for a few weeks to a month of chilling out. Then back to Malta to over winter there as last year.

You may find this hard to beieve but a boat has just passed us with a gross overweight man leaning against the boom in his best adonis pose, fine you may think but he is WELL over 25 stone and wearing brief speedo swimming trunks. Well really ducky there MUST be a law against that !!! He is so big there must be spiders and cobwebs where he cant reach.

A few other antics of charteres we have seen, putting down 10 mtrs of anchor chain in 10 mts of water and getting off the boat before before it has stopped! Being suprised when they come back that the boat isnt where they left it!. Swimming across the harbour / marina entrance when other yachts are comming in, GETTING OFF THE BOAT FOR A SWIM LEAVING THE SAILS UP WHEN 200 mts of an island, with NO ANCHOR DOWN!!!!! , reversing up to a man that had fallen off a cat in a marina with his legs just inches away from the Z drive prop.

We had forgotten how festive and scenic a marina can be at night. Last Friday we were treated to the sight of over 30 yachts at their marina berths all with any combination of Nav./ steaming / tricolour / anchor lights glowing bright. It is not unusual to see all combinations from nothing - up to everything on at dusk, I think working on the principal of 'better to be seen'. Local weather is still bad steady rain and again thunder around. Strange how almost every country we have been in says the weather is not normal for the time of year. Either it's the standard reply for the tourist, or global warming is not a future threat, but has started and is here now.

Business seems to be bad for the charter companies here, maybe the economy, the weather, or just plain overcharging. It is rumoured that some companies are looking to sell of some yachts cheap as they are having financial difficulties.