When we were leaving Malta, Mac and Rosie arranged for us to stay with their friend, Pauline, while we spent some time visiting London before going home to the U.S. for the holidays. We greatly appreciated having a place to stay, but more importantly, we loved meeting Pauline.

We are looking forward to catching up with Mac and Rosie when we return to Malta and cruising with them when we both head east toward Greece and Turkey.

When we sailed into the marina at Gaeta, Italy, we were berthed next to a Pearson Contessa , Aldeberan, with a hailing port of Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas. We had seen the boat in Green Turtle Cay during one of our many visits there. As we talked with Chris and Allen Laxton, we realized that they knew our friends, Deb and Greg Gebow on Undine and Tom and Raine Kearney on Cherie. Meeting them in Italy was a very pleasant coincidence and is another example of how small a world this is. While we were there, we got to meet their two very charming daughters, who were visiting. Chris and Allen were very helpful to us in passing on lots of information about Gaeta. We went together to some of their favorite restaurants and shared stories over some very good meals. Their boat went on the hard in Gaeta in August, while Chris and Alan went back to Florida.

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We met Jacqueline and Ruud, proud new owners of a Lord Nelson 42 named Pelican, in Palma,Mallorca, in spring of 2000, in the Balearic Islands. They are from Holland. Jacqueline had worked for an American company and Ruud worked in computer graphics. Both of them spoke English fluently. They are taking off for a few years to sail the Mediterranean. Ruud is an excellent sailor with quite a bit of sailing experience in Holland, but little cruising experience. Jacqueline was very interested in using the SSB radio to get weather reports and Tom was helpful to them in that area. They are spending the winter, 2000/2001 in Turkey and will continue their cruise by heading into the Black Sea this summer.

Photo: Ruud and Jacqueline

We first met Judy and Bob Bailey on Pooh Bear, a Westsail 32,in 1997, at the home of mutual friends in Oriental, NC.  They are fellow HAM radio operators and we had known them through their involvement in the Waterway Radio and Cruising Club.  They were well into planning for a transatlantic crossing to England and France, and we were just beginning to plan our trip.  As it turned out, they left from Florida just after we left from N.C.  We did not see them again, although we talked on the radio, until we sailed past them on their way into Villagarcia, Spain, in the Ria de Arosa.  Unfortunately, we were on our way out.  We saw them again in Rota, Spain, in 1999 and then followed their adventures into the canals of France to Calais and then to England.  They are spending the winter 2000/2001 in London at St. Catherine's docks and we stopped to see them there on our visit to London on our way home from Malta for the holidays.  They will cruise in England during the summer of 2001 and then spend the winter in Paris.

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Jim, Sandy, Tim, and Nick on Erin O'Lyrr sailed from Florida.  We were rafted next to Jim on Erin O'Lyrr in Horta. Sandy had not sailed the Bermuda-Horta leg, but flew to Horta to meet him and sailed the rest of the way to Lisbon with Jim. We toured with them on Sao Jorge and in Sao Miguel. We shared an anchorage with them in Sao Jorge, and were in the marina at Cascais and again at Lagos. They caught up with us again in Rota, where both of us left our boats on the hard to go home and see our children and grandchildren.

We left Rota in the spring of 2000 before Jim and Sandy returned to their boat.  After leaving Rota,they spent the spring and part of the summer cruising in the Balearics and Sardinia.  We saw Jim again when he was putting the boat on the hard in Gaeta prior to returning to their home in Florida.  We hope to cruise with them again in Greece.

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Eight years ago, Barbara and Al sold their prosperous business in San Francisco and their beautiful Pacific Heights home and sailed their Bristol 40, Windscape, under the Golden Gate bridge.  They have cruised through the Baja peninsula and Mexico and through the Caribbean.  We met them in Cascais, Portugal, and were with them again in Rota, Spain, where they also pulled their boat out of the water for the winter of 1999.

They are bright, personable and sociable people with many skills.  Al is an engineer and Barbara is a businesswoman with terrific people skills.  They are very active in the SSCA and are a real asset in any cruising group.

John and Sharon are from San Francisco and sail on Dionysus, a Slocum 43.  We saw the sign that they painted on the wall at Horta and then met them at the marina in Rota, Spain.  They are a very sociable couple and were the instigators of many dock parties and other fun occasions.  They left Rota at about the same time we did in the spring of 2000 and we met them again in Gibraltar, where we had a great English Roast together for Easter Sunday Dinner. When we left them in Gibraltar, they were on their way to Alicante, where they had rented a dock for a year.

John and Sharon are doing a circumnavigation and are taking their time seeing the world.  They have purchased an autocaravan (RV) and spend a lot of the time land cruising in Europe during the winter when they are not sailing.

We met  Bob and Dorian on their boat, Dorian, in St. George's Harbor, Bermuda and saw them again in Horta. We went sightseeing with them on Pico and Graciosa and said good-bye to them from the harbor in Graciosa. They were headed to the Bay of Biscay and we were headed to Sao Miguel. They have cruised in England,Scotland,and Sweden, and wintered in Paris in 2000/2001.  They plan on continuing north to cruise in Norway in the summer of 2001. We've been in radio and e-mail contact with them and hope to see them again. 

We met Russ on Hyglieg, a Tartan 28,  on the radio when he was headed from the Caribbean to Bermuda and we were headed from NC to Bermuda. He beat us there and when we contacted Bermuda Harbor Radio 30 miles out of Bermuda, they welcomed us in and gave us directions and mentioned that our friend on Hyglieg had advised them that we were on our way. Bermuda Harbor Radio extended Russ's greetings to us and advised us of Hyglieg's location. While in Bermuda, Russ's friend, Jenny, visited and we all got along so well. Garry and Lorraine were also there and we had a great time. Russ spent the summer of 2000 cruising in Maine and the Chesapeake and he and Jenny had a fine time visiting Washington, DC by boat and cruising along the East Coast.

We met Nanette with Tom and Debbie Shwab and their crew, Darren from England, in Bermuda and  were in radio contact with them on the way to Horta, arriving in Horta within minutes of each other.  We did a lot of sightseeing together in Horta and in Graciosa and spent time on the dock in the marina in Ponta Delgado, Sao Miguel. We left Sao Miguel on the same day, but Nanette returned because Darren came down with a raging case of food poisoning, which required rehydrating at the hospital in Sao Miguel. When Darren was well again, they left and went directly to Lisbon. They left their boat on the hard there and returned to their home in Kentucky for the winter. They sailed up the Atlantic coast to northern France in the spring of 2000 and spent the summer cruising in England and France. They again left their boat on the hard in Lisbon and will sail in the Mediterranean in summer of 2001. They have a daughter who is attending school in Florence, Italy, and no doubt, they will spend a good deal of their time there. We hope to meet them again.

We met Sandra, a 40 foot Halberg-Rassey boat from Sweden, in the middle of the  Atlantic, by radio and then caught up with them just as we caught our one and only fish. Gunnar, the skipper, had been a noted Olympic sailor from Sweden and had done extensive racing, including the Whitbread Round-the-World Race. He was with his brother, Andrers, and friend, Janni. We enjoyed socializing with them in Horta. They were on their way into the Mediterranean to Turkey. Gunnar and his wife had sailed for years together and he was clearly missing her - I think she was coming to the boat sometime later.

We met Chuck and Andy on their Halberg-Rassey 47 in the marina at Lagos, Portugal.  They were headed to the Canary Islands to join the ARC cruise to the Caribbean. They were from Washington state and enjoying new-found freedom from work on Sister. We understand that they are enjoying sun and fun in the Caribbean.

We met Alan and Chris Skitt through mutual friends, Bob and Judy Bailey on Pooh Bear, in Rota, Spain, in the fall of 1999.  They continued sailing on to Alicante, Spain, where they spent the winter. We were very pleasantly surprised when they pulled in next to us on the dock in Palermo in the summer of 2000.  They are an utterly charming couple. Alan is a retired "head hunter", an executive recruiter, who is very knowledgeable in the area of computers and who actually continued his education while cruising, finishing a dissertation and acquiring a graduate degree! Chris is a retired surgical nurse, who spent her last years in nursing as the executive director of the operating theater in her hospital. She is also an accomplished amateur thespian and has many other interests.  She was a great companion on those trips to museums and historic sites which held no interest for our husbands.

  Alan and Chris were on the dock when we arrived at Customs in Malta.  They introduced us to the English Pub quiz nights in Malta, which were great fun. They will be spending the winter 2000/2001 in Malta and we look forward to seeing them again as we cruise in Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus.

    Terry and Sue Eagling took our lines as we came into the dock at the Manoel Island Boat Yard in Malta with 20-25 knots of wind pushing us into the dock from our stern quarter.  Part of the docking procedure involved taking a stern line to a gigantic mooring drum.  Terry hopped into his dinghy and the job was completed in minutes.  We spent some enjoyable social times with them as we were both preparing our boats to be hauled out for the winter.

   Mardling is a colloquialism from Terry's home district in Norfolk, and it means a friendly get together or chat. Terry and Sue are from Sheringham, England, and we look forward to seeing them again when we both return to Malta in the Spring.  Their plans are to continue east and to cruise in the Adriatic.
 
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We hope to see more of them when we return to Malta and head east.

John and Suzanne are from New Jersey.  He is a retired city planner, originally from Holland, and she worked with the social work department and was active in theater.  They have cruised extensively in the Pacific and came through the Red Sea into the Mediterranean in 2000.  They spent last spring/summer cruising in Turkey and Greece and are on their way west.  We met them in Malta where their boat is on the hard and having some bottom work done.  Having lived aboard the last 7 years, they are now renting a beautiful apartment for the winter in Malta with a great view of the St. Julian area.  They have a wealth of cruising information and have written several informative articles for the SSCA bulletins.

Grand Daughters' web pages: Anna's Home Page,  Anastasia's Home Page  Isabelle's Home Page