Three weeks Back Now

Well, I have been back three weeks now and Audrey has been back for more than a month. I am I suppose properly accustomed to being in the office rather than planning the next passage. It has been quite a struggle to get back into the swing of work. We have however been giving further thought to our cruising plans as well as getting framed enlargements of the better pictures hung on the wall.

This blog has the subtitle of An Attempt to Take Sarah Giddings Cruising in the Med. Well, we have successfully got her to the threshold of the Med and we are now looking at options for the next stage. Our original plan of taking six months to get to Turkey is hopelessly unrealistic - well it would be so if we want to see stuff and enjoy ourselves rather than just rushing on to the next port.

We are also unsure about whether we do want to spend the entire season in the Med given rumours of increased expense as anchorages are gobbled up by expensive marinas and ever more people though the Euro crisis might have an effect on that.

We are also very keen to spend another trip exploring Atlantic Iberia more thoroughly than we did this year. Thus, our current favoured plan is to work our way up the Mediteranean coast of Spain and France before entering the Canal du Midi with a view to wintering in somewhere like La Rochelle. We would then be well placed, in 2013, to revisit the north coast of Spain and onto Portugal. From then, we are really not sure. Planning two steps at a time is probably a good maxim as well.

The CA (Cruising Association) is having a Med Section meeting next week which we will be going to. Our plan is to spend at least part of it picking other people's brains about the best strategies.

If any of the myriad readers of this self indulgent bit of frippery have any suggestions, please feel free to leave some suggestions in the comments.