Monthly Archives: July 2026

SY Mariadz

The adventure begins

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The sea, Earth’s watery frontier. These are the logs of the sailing yacht Mariadz, her “n” year mission (where n is an integer in the range 2-5) to explore new lands, to seek out fun and explore different civilisations, to boldly go where some sailboats have probably gone before. {cue music}

Back in 2009, when we first tried sailing, we had no idea where our ambitions would end.  Initially, we wanted to have our own boat, then we would go into the Mediterranean, later a transatlantic before we read a book from Nicola Rodriguez about sailing around the world. That sounded amazing and with family and friends dotted around the world, being a floating nomad sounded a fantastic life.

We bought our first boat, a Dufour 455, and loved her but as regular readers will know, a difficult return from Dunkirk made us realise her limitations or probably more accurately our limitations with her. We decided on a heavier boat which could handle bad weather a lot better and started looking at Moody yachts. We then met Nicola’s husband John who had a tired Moody 54 available and the rest is history.

When we brought Mariadz over to Italy we recognised that the journey from Plymouth was a warm up for the main event and that the start of our journey would really be in Brindisi. A shakedown week in Corfu demonstrated that Mariadz was mostly ready as long as we could get those last few jobs over the line.

The freezer situation was worrying, nine months previously we had suggested removing the old freezer and dropping a new unit in, as we had with the fridge.  You lose a lot of space compared to the bespoke design which maximised the unique shape next to the hull but at least you had a complete new system which would hopefully be successful. Balsamo, the team doing the work, had suggested that a new cold plate in the freezer would do the job just as well and would keep most of the available freezer space. However, having fitted the new plate several weeks previously, we were having real problems getting the freezer down to temperature. It was not consistent and there was a wide range of temperatures in different zones – freezing at the top and lukewarm at the bottom. Having lost food discovering this, it became clear that our original plan was the only viable option. And now we have a week to do it. This effectively means a couple of days so that we can test the new setup and confirm it works, and that nothing else has been broken (which had happened the last time the fridge was removed!). The wiring for the new Starlink was the second job which should be easy since we had a base plate fitted when we fitted the solar panels and there are lots of wires threaded through to the boat. However, over the course of the week it became clear that neither of these jobs were going to get done. The yard expected us to delay by another two weeks, having already been delayed by over two months.

Maria and I agreed that weather permitting, we would depart as expected. I return to England to work while Maria finishes preparing the boat and it feels close!

At the end of the week, I return to Brindisi and the weather is good for the next few days and the trip down the coast in particular.  
 

On the Saturday morning, the long awaited day has finally come and we are starting our journey towards Gran Canaria and the trans-Atlantic. We had always said that we would celebrate this day and also that there are certain songs that we would want to play – “Let’s Go” being the first! During the week I have prepared a mix of songs for us and on arrival I have put a bottle of champagne in the fridge. We are not drinkers on passage but a glass to celebrate our departure sounds good.

We are leaving early in the morning and the wind has died down a little from earlier in the week when it was a little hairy. I have split emotions about that, a large following wind would be great for the trip down the coast and reminiscent of the 20 knot winds and over 10 knots through the water that we achieved crossing Biscay. However, that is offset by the trouble initially getting off the pontoon when you are being pinned on by a strong wind. Today it is an easy departure and it looks like the north westerly will build to about 12 knots during the day and gives us a good push down the coast. A lot of recreational sailors, including us in the past, are on a clock and hence if the wind isn’t perfect you have to use the engine, and lots of fuel, to make your destination. When you are cruising, this subtly changes, fuel is a valuable commodity and no-one can carry enough fuel for a long journey across an ocean so you learn to deal with what the weather gives you. We are in a half way state, although we are now cruising, the delays have meant we have six days to get to Palermo in Sicily. This could be just a three or four day sail if the weather gods are kind but I have a flight to catch and we need to make sure we get there.

However, the north-westerly is good and we sail down the coast at a steady 6+ knots with no engine noise and just the sound of Mariadz cutting through the water and the gentle whirring of the autopilot as it constantly micro adjusts the course. We have a preventer on the boom as it is out a long way gathering up the following wind. We have all sails out at this stage and Mariadz feels comfortable.

The other thing about cruising is that it is apparently mostly fixing your boat in exotic locations and we experience our fist breakage of the trip after about ten hours. The wind is shifting slightly and we decide we can try and be goose winged. We decide to move the main across to achieve this and Maria starts to bring in the boom in using the main sheet while I control the preventer. Maria reports that the winch is struggling although the main sheet at the end of the boom is running free. We look forward to find one of the stand up blocks at the front of the mast looking different to the rest. I go to investigate to find it has failed with the outer casing broken and the main sheet line tucked between the case and the wheel it should be on. It is jammed tight. I am now at the mast trying to free this line and it isn’t going well. Maria suggested hitting it with a hammer and with a subtle adjustment that seems a viable plan. I now have a hammer and a flat head screwdriver. I don’t want to drive the point into the line because that will case a lot of damage and mean that we will need to replace or at the very least make the line shorter. So I have the screwdriver lying parallel to the rope and I am hitting it to hopefully get it out of its tight spot. After several minutes I am making progress and eventually I am able to free the line. We agree that we should limit mainsheet activity though since we don’t want to have the issue recur and the block is clearly not in good shape. All is not lost though, since we have a traveller at the back of the cockpit which can be used to move the sail around without adding too much pressure on the mainsheet. We then go to adjust the traveller and the end of a line goes into it and one of the sheaves (wheels within the traveller car) shatters. There are two on each side and this one is really a guide but that will be our second breakage. We resist the urge to find the nearest marina and replace everything that is broken. We have enough experience to roll with these punches and continue.

We also decide to pole out our headsail which will give it a better shape for the following wind and also stop it flapping too much as we rock and roll with the following waves. I have remembered how we do this but it is the first time Maria and I have done this together, and the first time it has been done in four years. Despite some issues with the pole which was a bit stiff, we are able to get the job done. Unfortunately, this only lasts 90 minutes before the wind dies and we have to start the engine.

We had seen on the forecast that the North Westerly we enjoyed was turning into a South Westerly as we got to the foot of Italy. The winds are quite strong and coming exactly from where we want to go so we decide to head a bit further south and go around the storm. 

Food and keeping your energy levels up is really important on long trips and Maria has all the food sorted for our trip having done a lot of batch cooking in the week I was away. We don’t eat masses on passage, preferring little and often, but it is nice to have a little variety and Maria has a selection of our favourites ready for us and light lunches as well as my standard breakfast of cereal with various fruits for me. We certainly won’t starve.

It is now getting later and we love night sailing but the issue with long distance sailing as a couple is that someone needs to be responsible for the boat at all times. The difficulty is getting rest, since you can’t really go to bed for eight hours and leave the other to look after the boat. Our view is normally to have a couple of hour watches through the night and also catch up on sleep during the day. I am normally pretty good at this and can sleep anywhere, all those late night inter-continental flights have helped there. However, Maria struggles to get her rest, a fact we noticed when crossing from Spain to Italy a few years ago. Add to that the excitement of starting the journey and you have a recipe for two tired people. In addition, we have the stress of making sure Bonnie is ok when this is her first multi-day passage. To be fair, these days, she spends a lot of time eating, sleeping and washing but did get into the habit of an early evening walk around the cockpit and some quality time with her parents.

Maria gets some food out and we have a really nice Lasagne with salad in the cockpit.  It sets us up for the night and because of all the preparatory work, Maria knocks this up really quickly despite the movements of the boat.

Through the night, the wind has turned against us a little and we are now sailing to windward rather than enjoying an easy push down the coast. We continue heading South to get around the storm, recognising that we are adding a lot of distance and hence time to the journey.

We have been sailing for 36 hours and we decide it is time to make the turn towards the straits of Messina. The Sirocco isn’t good and the wind strength has increased. This is the earliest point we could turn and use the wind effectively. However, the sea state is rough with two to three meter waves coming at us and occasionally the boat being hit hard and losing a lot of momentum.  This is resulting in an uncomfortable ride and a day of this would not be good.  We abort the first attempt to head to Messina, as we crash through the waves. We return to our southerly course with a view to trying again when the storm has settled a bit and the wind spend has reduced from 20 knots. At this stage we are using our staysail and less than two thirds of our main as the winds could be rising towards thirty knots. We are also using our engine to try and make a little more progress so we can hopefully get to better weather.

After a couple of hours, we are not making good progress South but we now have a better angle towards Messina even if not quite perfect yet. We agree that we should start heading back in the right direction.  It is more comfortable than our last attempt but not perfect by any means. A feature of this trip, and particularly the last twenty four hours has been any slight change in the wind has always been to our detriment, and that seems to be continuing through the day.  This means that rather than aiming at the Messina Straight we are having to aim 20-30 miles up the Italian coast. This means we would need to do that 20-30 miles, assuming everything stays the same, as an uncomfortable run down the coast miles into big waves and wind. However, the wind is due to let off before the next front comes in quite quickly and hopefully that window will present an opportunity.  A number of hours later, we continue to make good progress towards Italy but still have the conundrum above and the wind is strengthening.  It is now up to 25 knots and gusting near to thirty.  We are close hauled to the wind with relatively little sail out so Mariadz is taking it very well and continuing to go faster than six knots with a reasonable amount of heel – we know our girl doesn’t like to be over-heeled!

I recall from our first trip through the Messina Straight, the issues with whirlpools, and potentially sea monsters!  The flow of water is quite fast and for a sailing yacht it is important to hit the right window to go through the Straights or the flow of water will significantly offset the speed you are doing. This window starts approximately between 10 and 11 in the morning and the night for the days we are likely to traverse the Straights.  As we head back to land we are making good progress and we will be around the window, although the three hours lost for the extra tack is not good news for us.

Then our first bit of luck, the wind shifts slightly to the South and softens a little so I can bring Mariadz further South West and now we are aimed at the entrance to the Straits.  Our speed remains good and we are back on target for going through the straits at a good time. 

As we follow the Italian coast round into the Messina Straits, the last part is a little strange with huge waves crashing against us amidships and rolling the boat from side to side as Mariadz rides the waves.  It isn’t fun but it isn’t long before we are turning to go into the straits themselves from the Italian side and then it gets very strange.  We are due a lull but the last of the wind is giving its all.  We have a 15-20ft headwind, which is not good.  The current should be against us and the waves seem to be aimed at us with the wind.  However, the prevailing winds for some time have been from behind our current position and we are definitely surfing the waves in, even though I don’t think we should be doing that into a headwind!  Mariadz is incredibly stable but does fall off the wave when surfing a few times, some minor alterations and we resolve that but it feels strange as we make good progress into weather that should be stopping us. 

As we approach, we speak to Messina VTS, who control the Straits, and they give us permission to proceed but we are three abreast with two cargo ships, one of which is almost going exactly the same speed as us.  The straits tighten up and I decide that just as discretion is the better part of valour, cowardice is the better part of discretion – I slow down and tuck in behind the second cargo ship, the first having got a little ahead of us all.  We now have the fun of playing frogger (the old game where the frog has to across the busy road!) with the ferries crossing between Italy and Sicily.  They are all on AIS so we can see them with me handling everything in the vicinity and Maria checking a bit further ahead for potential hazards.  This team effort works really well as we work our way through the Straits, just as I negotiate one potential issue, Maria gives me advance warning of the next. Soon enough we are past the worst of the traffic and heading towards the starboard turn as you start the exit of the Straits.  I notice the slow moving cargo ship ahead of us has gone quite close to the middle of the traffic separation scheme, which effectively gives you sides of the road, interesting but maybe we will stay in the middle….. As we make our turn it becomes clear why they have done that.  We have been travelling at a steady seven knots and our autopilot has been faultless. Suddenly our autopilot is struggling to keep us on course and Mariadz is turning by herself and the speed over ground is down to 1-2 knots. Nothing has changed on Mariadz and we are still making revs to achieve seven knots easily.  Clearly, we have been caught up in a whirlpool (I don’t mean the washing machine although the effect feels quite similar!). we are powering through and still making some progress but it is slow.  After a few minutes, we are out of it and everything returns to normal but a lesson learned when the locals give that right hand corner (when you are going North) a wide berth!

It has been a hard few days and we are clearly both a little tired so Maria’s suggestion that we stop in Milazzo rather than continue to Palermo seems really sensible.  We now only have three or fours left to go but it will still be after 3am when we arrive.  The next few hours are uneventful and we get a little rest.  It is great that Milazzo have said they have space for us and we are looking forward to an alongside berth and a good nights sleep in our bed.

We approach and radio in with the team saying they will come and get us in the rib. Excellent, concierge service!  Our recent journey has been the first time in Mariadz for quite some time, more than a year, and Maria has yet to regain her confidence behind the wheel.  It therefore falls to our less experienced helmsman to bring Mariadz into the marina. And it looks tight! And we have only just had the topsides beautifully done at Balsamo and I really don’t want to damage her!   

Our guide tells me we have to go in astern which is not a huge surprise, especially as the path we have to go down is little wider than Mariadz, maybe two metres. I am taking it very slow, especially since I have no idea where we are going.  The guy is now out of the rib and on the dock pointing to a small gap between two big, expensive-looking boats!  Maria confirms that we have to turn into there but I am worried that any attempt to turn straight in would push the bow out to the other side and into the anchors, lazy lines (and general trouble) on our port side.  I continue to back up slowly and slowly edge towards the starboard side.  Please remember that this is after several days of sailing and at 3:30am! As we go past the berth it is clear that not only is this area not very wide but the gap they are proposing is a couple of metres bigger than Mariadz.  Now I can hear some of you saying, its parallel parking, that’s easy in a gap that is not much bigger than your car!  Hmmm, it’s a fair point but when you are parallel parking you have a lot more control over direction and the road isn’t moving!  Anyway having now gone past the space and shifted from the centre towards the starboard side of the channel, I am confident I have enough space to swing the stern out a little and point into the gap.  As we edge in, a burst of the bow thruster (sometimes I wish I had something like that on the car), simultaneously moves the bow out and brings the stern in and we are now only a couple of metres from the dock.  Maria expertly throws the mid line to the marina guy so we are attached and once the stern line is on, it is just a case of edging Mariadz into the space. We have landed and no boats were hurt in the making of this story! You may think I have exaggerated the difficulty of this but to put it into context, I immediately got off to see how much space I had and it was literally 50cms from the rib to the boat behind and a meter and a half to the swim platform of the one in front.  The nod I got from the guy on the dock was enough to know that he thought it was impressive (so why did he put us there if it was so difficult…..).

After a good nights sleep, we talk to the office the next day and they tell us that we need to come out of that space and go into another space for our second night. Being lucky once is one thing, but the problem with Russian roulette is that if you keep doing it, eventually you lose!  We also need to refuel and so will combine those together.  My first request is to make the space a little larger so we can get out.  I point out that the boat in front could move forward a couple of metres and then I could bring Mariadz off almost sideways, something we have done loads. “I’m sorry I can’t touch that boat!”.  Ok, scratch that. You need to come and help us by attaching a rib to the stern and pulling the stern off while use the bow thruster to get the bow off. OK, and actually that was even easier than it sounds. Mariadz glides off sideways and I am in the middle of the not very wide channel.  As we exit, Maria is worried we may hit the motorboat moored at an angle at the end but I recall that we cant swing over too early or we get caught up in the lazy lines on the other side.  We sneak out without any problems but Maria was very worried!  So it is over to the fuel berth where we are told we can’t refuel because it is only two metres deep – that’s ok, we only draw 1.8m. However, we do need to be careful of that unforgiving rock that seems to be five metres behind the fuel pontoon.  We go in astern, so our fuel cap is on the correct side and are tied up quite quickly. Over 500 litres later and one work call, we are topped up and it is time to go to our new berth.  This is in the next channel against the wall where all the big boats go except there appears to be a large rib exactly where we are being told to go. We wait while that is moved and then gently get Mariadz into her new position without any issues representing three landings in twelve hours and no damage to Mariadz 😊

We will be here for another twenty four hours which gives us a little time to try and resolve a few issues:

• The wiring for the solar has been cut from the cable ties whilst at Balsamo, that needs redoing

• We need to fix the stand up block so that our mainsheet can be fully functional again

• The bad weather has ripped some of the lines holding the netting at the bow

• I need to buy a new long hose since the last one split

• Our starboard navigation light stopped working, admittedly after the bow had been buried in water so that may just have been a little water getting into it

• Maria wants additional freezer capability, now that we know that our drop in freezer wont be done any time soon

• I have noticed that the rib is not sitting well on the straps and on closer inspection find that one of the lifting points has sheared – that will need to be fixed before we continue our journey

• The alternator is not charging the batteries again!  More investigation required and possibly the help of a professional

So a reasonable list to fix quickly!  But more of that next time….

SY Mariadz

A thorough test in Corfu

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We have had yet another refit and the proof of the pudding will be whether everything still works. The marina have suggested a test sail but we would prefer a test week with a week afterwards to resolve any resulting issues.

We have a date for leaving but a few days before we  are having issues with Connie, our walker bay 10 foot rib, which is leaking, not just a little bit enough to be twelve inches deep overnight! One failed repair has not filled us with confidence nor has the conversations suggesting we should replace her. A final repair has been done to her lifting connectors so we have to tow her for a while as she can’t be lifted until this is set. That will test the leaks elsewhere!

Unfortunately while we wait for this last repair it is mid  afternoon by the time we can leave which is fine, we will arrive in Corfu after an overnight run early in the morning.

We set off with Connie following behind obediantly. In a reasonable north north westerly wind we have all three sails up in and are making good speed as we head south to Corfu.  After five hours, we decide to stop to load up tender. As I anxiously peer inside expecting some water I am pleasantly surprised thatthere isn’t a single drop of water in there. We have tentative confidence that we have a fix. As the evening  draws in we enjoy a lovely north westerly wind driving us down to Corfu at 7 knots but that dies at 2:30am so it is engine on and motor from here.  Maria and I are on watch and are going through the night and Carlo wakes up early to relieve me and let me get some sleep. 

Carlo and Maria decide to fish for tuna trawling as we go but I am convinced I can see them swimming parallel to us, coming out of the water and flashing the finger at them! They certainly don’t go anywhere near the lures that have been deployed.

It is an uneventful trip down and we arrive at 10am in the morning to check in. Having had lots of work done, I am not inclined to put her up against a concrete wall and so we decide to anchor in the bay adjacent to the port.  This of course means that I have to use the rib to travel the short distance into the port.  Ok let’s get the rib down. Our standard approach is to lower to near the water, put in the bung, which is left out for travelling and then drop the rest of the way. Connie is at this point as I reach into the stern section… Where’s the bung? It’s not there! The sides of the rib are too high for it have gone overboard but it must be under the floorboards, which can’t be moved.  We explore the options and eventually I decide to go with one of the wooden bungs that we have which does the job admirably. As we are talking Carlo and Sabrina mentioned that they saw the boat hook go over the side during the trip too… ah, we will need to do some shopping.

Having been to Corfu before on Mariadz, we are confident that we know the process and Maria has prepared our documentation. However, the new process of check in requires an electronic transit log. Oops, didn’t see that. We get some help filling it in and then do the check in shuffle – Port authority, customs, police and then back to the port authority. The buildings are on opposite ends of the port so this 8ant a quick process and it’s a couple of hours before we are back to the boat, with a dry rib by the way!

We are off to Mathraki, an island to the north of Corfu, but before we go i decide to pop into Corfu with Carlo. The local chandlery has everything we need, including a replacement bung almost identical to the one I have lost.  The last time we were in Corfu, we ate Gyros in Corfu Town but with the the girls and Dario back on the boat it will have to be a Gyros take away. As I say Corfu Town has everything we need!

This does all take time and it isn’t until the afternoon, that it is off to Mathraki. Maria takes Mariadz out of the anchorage, motoring northwards and there is a large catamaran motoring across us. They decide to hit their horn – maybe they think they are in a car! There are standard meanings when you use the horn but I definitely don’t think they are turning to starboard as they plough on with complete confidence that we will get out of their way.  Apparently they have the god given right of way. Clearly our mistake, and we agree to turn behind them but Maria still gives the English flagged catamaran a little piece of her mind…

As we gently motor north, I am reminded of a safari we went on years ago. I can hear a herd of wildebeest snoring as all of the other members of our crew sleep – including Bonnie. I stay awake but the chorus from them all wasn’t quiet! As we arrive at Mathraki, we decide to anchor to the south of the island where Carlo can go diving. So not against the concrete dock in the north of the island – did I mention our pristine topsides….

Carlo goes off fishing and by the time he returns we have a lot of fish and that is dinner sorted.

The weather for the next day is not so good with another north westerly blowing through, and there is no protection from a strong north westerly on Mathraki. We decide to head over to a large bay on Corfu that should be protected from a north westerly wind.

It isn’t ideal, as there is a valley to the north side of the bay that seems to funnel the wind into the bay and makes a few spots that should be protected quite uncomfortable, there is also quite a swell coming in which makes it a little bouncy.

We appear to have run out of fish, so it’s off back to Mathraki for a day trip for Carlo to get some more. Some of these have not quite given up the ghost when Carlo brings them on board which puts a fright on maria as they have a little wriggle, Again we can’t stay late because yet another north westerly is coming through. A return to the bay on Corfu gets us dropping anchor in a good spot, it may have taken us three attempts to find it but this is comfortable.

It’s a short break but we are having a wonderful time with great friends, our Italian family. I even have the paddle board inflated, since Mathraki was the site of the video of Carlo learning how to do this…. But unfortunately no repeat this year. I do try my hand after a few years off, and despite an early swim, get the hang of it and am able to circumnavigate the boat without getting dunked again.

Our standard routing home from Corfu is to stop off at Ereikousa so we decide on hiring a car for a day to drive to Corfu for checkout rather than sailing all the way around to the opposite side. Maria, Dario and I are doing the checkout because Dario wants to buy a souvenir t-shirt, he is 6ft 7in so it has to be a 2XL unless he wants to wear a crop top. Maria and I go to do the checkout which is seamless with the port authority, customs and then returning to the port authority for the last stage. Dario isn’t quite so lucky having walked around Corfu Town for some time and not finding a suitable t shirt in the right size. The drive back is uneventful and we return the car which isn’t even checked, a sort of ultimate honesty bar! Having left the rib at the beach with some crashing waves there is some water within the boat which I will get rid of when we lift her onto the davits. I head back with some shopping, Carlo had asked for 24 jars of Greek olives to take back to one of the largest olive producing areas in Europe! Dario has been successful with his t shirt hunt at the shops in the bay as I pick him up and drop him at Mariadz. Finally back to collect Mariadz and my taxi duties are over. It’s time to get the rib back up on the davits ready for our departure. As we lift the rib, I go to remove the bung from it so I can drain the water inside. there are two there! It had obviously slipped under the floor and only came back when there was quite a bit of water sloshing around. So now I have two proper bungs and a wooden bung but most importantly no water coming into the boat!

During our trip, the World Cup has reached the later stages and we had watched England’s quarter final victory with the semi final against Argentina in the evening we arrive at Ereikoussa. 

It’s a short hop to Ereikoussa from Corfu and the wind is a little all over the place, we tried several different sail plans to get the best out of it but it is only a couple of hours later that we have arrived and are anchored in the bay outside the marina on the south side of the island. We want to celebrate the evening and the last day of our holiday so Carlo and I go on land to see what we can find. Carlo agrees to buy a cooked lobster, which will take about an hour, and we look around the rest of the island, looking for t shirts for Dario (I found one for me 🙂 ) and also some food for Dario, that will be a gyros again!  It’s a lovely evening although the football game had the wrong result for us. The food, drink and conversation all flow well and the evening goes far too quickly.

It’s an early start the next morning with a NW coming and our memories still vivid of the last time we did this and had a very bumpy ride up the last part of the coast to Brindisi. I’m not making that mistake again.  Maria and I set off under motor whilst our guests sleep blissfully in their beds, despite the clatter of the anchor being brought in. As we leave Ereikousa, an island we both like, Maria thinks she sees tuna jumping out of the water – probably flicking a finger at us for escaping our lines again. It doesn’t deter her for setting a trawling line though… 

We are motor sailing to make good progress in a wind that isn’t perfect. Maria’s fishing rod then bends hard over the solar panel but before we can slow the boat down to try and make the catch, he has wriggled free. A little later it happens again but the lure has disappeared when we bring it in – those tuna love a bit of plastic.  It would have been hilarious to have caught something when our highly skilled fisherman was asleep in his bed, but it wasn’t to be.

We are making good progress and are heading to the outside of Brindisi, not getting too close to the coast.  The run is going well and it is comfortable which continues all the way into Brindisi port. That has erased a few bad memories! Balsamo Marina is all the way into port so we take sails down in the outer harbour and motor in respectfully. The team have reserved our spot which is a simple astern manoeuvre and then ferry glide onto the dock and we are back. It’s been a great time and we have found a few things that need fixing but overall Mariadz has done really well and has really benefitted from her pampering over the winter.

The next example explains all you need to know about doing jobs on a boat. We are about to return from Corfu when Maria tells me that the large pull out drawer under the  sofa will not go in properly and she suspects something has fallen down the back of the drawer and is jamming it. There is no access from the front to get there so I have to remove the back cushions, lift the tv out of the way and check behind the drawer from the back. I check and can see nothing there but I can see something inside the drawer hitting the cross member under the sofa. Ok, easy fix and we are done…. Nope. Maria sorts out the drawer and that is good to go. I then press the remote for the tv to lower it back down and it bounces up and stops an inch above its supposed resting place. How is that fair? Carlo and I have the seats apart and the lifter apart trying to work out how to fix it but after quite some time we have to resign ourselves to not fixing it. As we put everything back together again, it is clear that we need to lower the tv on the lifter but you can’t do that because the mounting bolt for one of the sides at the top of the tv is missing and seems to be rattling around the tv. I try to switch the tv on to make sure all is ok. It isn’t working. Ok, this is now a job for another day.

We now have a list of things to do before we depart in a week. This includes finally resolving the freezer, which is now being used as a fridge, fitting the new Starlink mini to the solar arch and running the wire through the boat, working out why our Balmar alternator was not charging the batteries, refitting the teak deck on the swim platform which has come unglued, fixing two tvs and a tv lifter (!) and various other small jobs. We make it clear to the Marina that we have to leave ina week with no delays, we’ll see how that works.

However, it has been a lovely week with our Italian family. It makes us realise what we are leaving behind when we embark on our grand adventure but also what we have to return to once that is finished.

SY Mariadz

Yet another refit….

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Three years ago, we travelled from the UK to Italy crossing Biscay after an extensive refit. However, for the last two years, the focus has been unavoidably on finishing the house to give us the ability to fund our grand adventure.  This has meant that whilst Trullo Mariadz has gone from strength to strength, sailing yacht Mariadz has developed a few problems. Towards the end of 2025, we realised that the boat would need some work. Based on our experience with Danese in Brindisi, we didn’t want to take it there – I’m not a fan of someone that looks for a gas leak on a boat with a lighter!  We decided to go into the main port and back to Balsamo who had done a little work for us when we lifted the boat to get cleaned and to change anodes.

However, the list was becoming extensive. During the 2022 refit, we had replaced the built-in fridge with a new unit which lost us a lot of fridge space but gave us a reliable fridge. At the time we discussed what we should do with the freezer and were told that the freezer was fine. Of course two years later and the freezer had failed completely. Our first inclination was to replace the freezer as a complete unit as we had done before but we were assured that a new cold plate within the freezer would be ample – we learned to rue taking that advice. However, the removal of the fridge several times, and if I am honest a lack of care with this, damaged the Lino floor, the wooden trim and indeed the fridge itself. All of these things got fixed but it was frustrating.

We have always liked copper oat and three years ago had it redone at Suffolk yacht harbour. However, I don’t think they prepared the old one well enough and I think the new coats didn’t take and fell off. When we got Mariadz out, it was clear that we did not have a thick coat of copper coat which there should have been after two applications in her lifetime. The dryer weather in Italy should suit the application perfectly and Balsamo did a great job of that.

We already knew about a leak in the gas system which balsamo fixed in minutes by adjusting the pipes, trimming and refitting. Such a simple fix but a weight off our minds.

The electric winches are about the only thing on the boat that have not been replaced and, to my shame, I hadn’t serviced them for a while either. We also had the remains of a bolt that had been mostly drilled out. I am not going round the world with an important winch which is only attached to the boat for four of its five mounts! Again this wasn’t a difficult job once the guys started looking at it, and they did a good job of extracting the remaining thread of the bolt like a stainless steel thread, returning the original thread to as new. Testing the winches didn’t go well either with one of the winches not working. Ollie has been our saviour so many times (and will be mentioned more here) and once again helped me to diagnose the problem. On this occasion a failed switch.  The problem of course is that the switches are 25 years old and were discontinued nearly twenty years ago. The replacement is a different size and also substantially larger than the fifteen millimetres of depth. It meant I need to drill out the hole in our coach roof to for the new switches but we are now very happy with them.  I fell short of changing all of the switches because the switch is directly above the electric winch motor and on the starboard side the drive is very close to the switch – I wasn’t sure there was clearance and I didn’t want to take the risk unless I absolutely had to! That can be a problem for another day especially as I have a functioning switch as a spare now. The winches also deserve a service and I have to admit I referred to my own notes from a few years ago, the moment fading as I get older.

Our ST1000 autopilot has a remote controller which is incredibly useful, however after twenty years the battery died. After checking on the internet it is possible to get a replacement battery, solder it to the harness inside the remote controller and voila!

The constant use of the boat, especially for the seven years we lived aboard, had taken its toll on the leather cushions. One in particular had ripped on a seam. Our fantastic friends Carlo and Sabrina recommended a reupholsterer in Ostuni.  When we met him we instantly liked him, and by removing some of the bolster on the cushion, he was able to create enough overlap of the existing leather to fix the cushion. He was at pains to tell me, no kneeling or standing on the cushion, twice in Italian and once in English from his apprentice.  I suspect he doesn’t want us to kneel on the cushion! An amazing fix and cost us about €30!

Regular readers will know that Maria likes the creature comforts and Mariadz was fitted with three air conditioning units. One was unserviceable due to a par that is no longer available and we had various leaks and issues with the others.  At a boat show a number of years ago we had seen the Frigomar inverter technology, which doesn’t have the traditional big initial hit of power. They are quiet and efficient as was confirmed by a very nice Russian and Ukrainian couple when we were in the Straits of Messina. I had decided that if we were going to do this I would get the new air-conditioning units, fitting should be simple since they are a like for like replacement. The job was quite easy for the team at Balsamo and I also had them re-route a pipe that had been fitted wrong originally. Linked to the aircon was the fitting of the new fans. The sirocco fan in our aft state room had finally given up the ghost despite my best attempts to resuscitate it, so we needed a replacement. Maria also wanted one in the bunk room, where there was what looked like a prewar fan, which still worked but wasn’t good. So two new fans were bought and maria wanted these in our bedroom and the galley with the original galley one in the bunk room. Well that shouldn’t take too long…. All was going swimmingly until I got to the bunk room. Removing the old one was fine but the wiring for it went to an independent switch next to it. My initial thought was to keep that as an override but the wires were very tight and the solder on the switch poor which meant it disconnected. Ok plan b is remove the switch, join the two wires together and then use the rest of the existing wiring to fire up the sirocco. I wanted to solder the two wires together, not least of all because I could barely get any slack in one of them. Needing three hands, Maria helped me to do that and after a little swearing that part was done and my trust multimeter proved that it worked. I then go to the wire that will go to the sirocco which is about three inches too short to reach the terminals. More soldering! A three act drama but now we have three working sirocco fans.

One of our maintenance jobs is to regularly open and close the valves on the through-hulls. The last time I had done this I had noticed that one of the valves under the kitchen floor did not seem to work well. I asked the marina to change the valve, and they stated that the through hull also needed to be changed. Strange! Even stranger when they then said that all 20 needed to be changed. Again, if you have seen our blogs before, you will know that we had changed these a few years ago at considerable expense to have a final solution. I asked for the marina to wait until I arrived before doing anything else. In the end this was a god-send. This was the time that they realised we weren’t chequebook yachties with unlimited funds. I went on board and realised that in my absence, the valves had become very stiff.  The boat was on the hard so I decided to start trying to unfreeze these. With a mixture of brute strength and extension pipes I was able to get the, working properly.  When I showed the yard manager, Massimo, he got it, freed up the rest and we didn’t discuss changing them all again!

When in England, we had an automotive fitter remove all of our windows and refit them to overcome a common Moody issue of leaky windows. To our horror, a few years later these were leaking very badly to the extent that our beautiful interior wood was damaged, and water had got into our victron 5kw Quattro inverter charger and blown it. I was able to source a replacement which was easily fitted but it was a lesson on what happens when you leave the boat alone. However, our electrical problems weren’t over. 

The new inverter charger kept tripping and we eventually traced this to the heating element on the water heater. We needed a replacement,ent and Balsamo were at a loss for where to source the UK sized element. Rather than replacing the entire boiler, I sourced two in the UK and brought them to Italy but that wasn’t the end of the trouble. Water had been around the top of the element and there was a fair bit of rust with the element being seized in place. Balsamo fabricated a large hexagonal tool out of steel but even this needed an extension bat to free up the old element. The new element went into place beautifully and despite a few teething problems with the temperature and safety cut off settings, this worked well. However, the pressure release valve was also faulty, fortunately I had sourced what I thought was a like for like valve since I was sure the original was a 3 bar valve. Once fitted this kept releasing as the hot water caused the pressure to go over the pumps 2.5 bar.  I was told we would need a 5 bar valve and this was available quickly and did the trick.

Mariadz has a toe rail at the stern and when docked stern to, I had noticed that the workmen placed a board on the toe rail at the stern. There was clearly an issue but on one of the occasions a chunk of this had broken off. Clearly no one had noticed and a repair was required. I was wondering whether we would have to fit a piece of wood into the original when the yard decided to replace the section of toe rail with new teak. They then varnished this and it looked amazing but of course made the rest of the toe rail look awful. We have tried to get a nice looking toe rail using various products and had shied away from varnish because of the maintenance but it is clearly the best. Maria and I agreed we should have the rest of the toe rail done and after negotiating a slightly better deal by doing some of the preparation work ourselves, we now have a beautiful varnished teak toe rail. Now to varnish it again regularly. Of course a beautiful varnished toe rail has to be adjacent to a wooden coloured teak deck, grey just won”t do. Fortunately, I had some teak wonder in my spares (replacement ordered, delivered, stored and inventorised) and maria and whiled away away a few hours, and layers of skin because of the acid, getting our decks looking beautiful again.

There was a little bit of work on the mast too. I know the rigging was fine but I had noticed that one of the spreader lights had half failed with three lights lit rather than six. I had already found the exact lights to replace them with and asked the yard to do this since I was just too bust with work. They fitted the first light, replacing the failing one, and when we tested them, they did exactly the same! We disconnected and brought them all down for a test – one of the new ones had failed in exactly the same way as our original.  I bought them some time ago so have no recourse but it was frustrating. We have two working ones, one old and one new so we will go with that.  While they were up there I asked them to lubricate the blocks at the top of the mast, unfortunately, this wasn’t too carefully done and a lot of drips from the silicon lubricant cam down and landed squarely on our new cockpit tent. These have stained it badly despite all of our best efforts to remove them. I did the rest of the blocks and running gear myself and they now all work beautifully.

One of the jobs I was looking forward to was doing a full inventory of everything in our storage areas. We have, and as you can see need, a lot of spares and when you need them, you don’t want to turn the entire boat upside down to find them. So one of my jobs was to categorise everything we have in the storage areas. It was fun and a

We found things that we knew we had but didn’t know where they were! The last stage of this was going through the lazzarette. Whilst doing this I noticed the hydraulic fluid was a little low and just before filling it up noticed a large split in the back of it, grrrr. Quite often on boats you find things from other vehicles being used and apparently our hydraulic fluid container is used on a Mitsubishi four wheel drive. Trying to source one in the internet revealed that they were only a few euros, result…. If you bought 200. I travelled around Brindisi seeing if there was anything that could be used. There wasn’t. When I approached Massimo his initial reaction was that we would fibreglass the whole thing, with a fibreglass bracket. Inspired. It looks brilliant and when I fitted it, the positing was not as exposed as previously so I suspect that it won’t get the same kind of punishment.

The rib, Connie, had been on dry land for the winter and it was now time to return her to the water and her place on the stern of Mariadz. One of the workmen, ricardo, tested her engine and made sure everything was working ok and she was left floating next to us overnight.  The next morning I got up to check on her and to bring her round to go up on the davits at 7am. She has twelve inches of water inside her, lapping at the bottom of the battery. I am assuming that this is from the drain hole and a plug that hasn’t been fitted as I start to empty her, initially with a hand pump and then with a submersible electric pump. However, it looks worse than that with water coming in from the support structure for the stern which has a couple of hairline cracks. The guys get her out of the water and set about revealing the whole stern section. The next day, we are ready to try again. After a few minutes it is clear water is still coming in and we are all looking very worried. Connie is back out and in the work area. I suggest we fill her with water and see where it drains from and we set about doing this. Not too deep as it is the opposite pressure to normal. There are a few drips from the stern but nothing significant and a little more work in this area sorts this out. However, there seems to be something odd going on at the lifting points for the bow. These have stainless pads on the outside, one of which has some rust on it and the other is dripping. We agreed that we will remove these completely reseal them and tighten everything up. We can then test everything over a couple of days. As you will see she was bone dry, despite a couple of related mishaps from my side, so a success. Especially when you consider that the yard and Maria were looking at new boats to replace her!

Whilst doing the lazarette I noticed that the hydraulic ram had failed, when the lid came down sharply on me! That had to be replaced and we may as well do the other after locker while we are at it.

Having done lots of work, we decided a test sail would be in order and decided to return to Corfu, with our great friends Carlo and Sabrina with their son Dario. That trip is described elsewhere but at the end of it we had a few more jobs to do…

On our return, there are a few jobs to do, some of which are below but I also noticed that the teak deck on the swim platform floor has come away.  We have re glued this but the full solution would be to replace this – perhaps when we get somewhere with cheap teak! However, a major problem is that for the whole of our trip, the engine would not charge our batteries. Ollie to the rescue with a list of things to check. We went through all the diagnosis, changed some older fuses but still no luck. At this stage, having worked back from the batteries, it must be an issue with the intelligent alternator. I have checked a few things, battery voltages are coming through well, no error messages on the control panel. Ollie then suggests removing the blue and white charge wire from the alternator. It is incredibly hard to reach but I get my hand in there.  I decide to press it first before pulling at it and there is a reassuring click. Surely not! Surely. Engine revs up and 1kw is flowing into my batteries. What a shame I didn’t thing to check this on our holiday! I suspect it had happened when the engine was serviced, it is quite near a filter and I can imagine it could get knocked. Another frustrating issue but thankfully with a simple fix.

It is then time to attack the TV that stopped working on the trip. Firstly it is clear that the tv needs to be lower on the stand but that isn’t possible because the top mounting hole has a part missing, and it is rattling around in the tv. There is also the small matter of the tv not switching on. At this stage I have already ordered a replacement, this has been problematic for a few years now, but as usual I am keen to understand what the problem is. Since I will have to remove the back of the tv retrieve the floating piece of plastic, I take it into the aft stateroom. I actually have a lower supply for an avtex here so no harm in trying… the TV boots up first time no problems. Cancel order for new tv. After removing 20 small screws and a couple of clips for the electronics, I can see the problem with the back of the tv. So I reposition the floating piece of plastic, secure it and put the tv back together. All good. Plug it into the power to check it works… nothing. No. Plug the original tv back into its own power, nothing. Check I haven’t tripped anything, panel looks good! Oh {please add your expletive of choice}. So now I have two broken TVs. I decide to try the bedroom one first. The access is good for the power and I recall there are two lots of power fed from the box, one for the sirocco fan and one for the TV, as I look, I can see a loose wire, I must have pulled it a bit hard by mistake. That seems fine except the negative is wired into the earth wire! The sirocco is wired how you would expect, positive to positive and negative to negative and I decide I will rewire it properly. Once this is done everything is working fine – including the large TV so now to understand what is going on in the saloon. For historical reasons we have a 24v to 12v converter in this setup which the avtex doesn’t need but the original tv did. When I look at this, we have power going in and power is coming out but hang on, the connector isn’t connected. It should be a crimped connector which appears to have been held together with blue electrical tape! Again that is going to change! A nice new insulated crimped end is added and now we have perfect power again. Hopefully the end of our TV problems since I can now mount it a bit lower using the repaired top connectors 🙂

As I fly back on the 24th July, the day before we start the grand adventure, there are still a few things to do and I have a large bag of spare parts, essentials (chocolate and ginger nuts) and several bikinis for maria (also described as essentials since she has lost weight and her old ones now fall off her!)

The last few jobs are;

  • to replace the bulbs for the navigation lights on the bow which have got corroded and failed under the water splashing over the bow, 
  • Fix some of the interior LEDs which are failing after being replaced fifteen years ago. 
  • The rubber around our windscreen needs replacing and it is on order 
  • I also need to check the solar panels, I suspect one isn’t working, hopefully just a loose connection 
  • Fix the WiFi booster where I think the power over Ethernet block has failed again.

Oh and whatever else breaks as we start our journey …

general

Clyde 2010 – 2026

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It’s four months later but it is still difficult knowing where you start something like this.  It’s very difficult when Clyde has been a part of your lives for over fifteen years and then suddenly he is gone. Clyde was incredibly affectionate, sociable, talkative and seemed to think he was a dog. He was an important part of our family. I don’t want this to be a morbid post but more of a celebration of everything Clyde was to us and others.

Back in 2010, shortly after Maria and I got married, I was working away a lot, mostly abroad for extended periods. It was hard on Maria, uprooted from her neighbourhood and family and not knowing many people in Colchester. She suggested that she needed some companionship and suggested cats, knowing I am allergic to cats! But apparently this breed are fine and do not cause the same problems – it didn’t take long to prove that assumption wrong. Anyway having been brought up with cats I wasn’t against the idea and Maria decided that Ragdolls were the one and found a breeder.

As we went in to the breeder, the litter were everywhere in the front room. One boisterous kitten, with a gorgeous dark face caught Maria’s eye immediately, as they all ran around a lot.  Maria saw another that looked the same and thought that would work well, the other was Bonnie.  However, I wasn’t convinced by the speed merchant, I thought there may be a screw loose up there and that would be difficult. I did see a quiet little boy on his own with a white flash on his head. A great looking cat and one that would definitely not suit the name Clyde, since the pretty girl had to be called Bonnie but that didn’t matter.  We put down a deposit and agreed to collect the cats. Shortly before collection the breeder informed us that the cats were unwell and there would be a delay. I hadn’t been happy with the conditions when we first met the cats and I said to Maria that I had the cash and we should bring their baskets, just in case.

When we arrived, it was clear she was a bad breeder, the final straw for me was the fact she had taken all of the cats to a firework party and locked the kittens in the utility room. I can’t imagine how scared they must have been. She reiterated that they had to see the Vet, but I wasn’t having that – we have a vet, here’s your money and I will take my cats today. A few weeks later, we found that the mobile number she gave us was no longer obtainable so I suspect they were ripping people off.

When we took the cats to the vet we found they were very ill and it would likely cause them problems later in life but with the right treatment they overcame the initial illness. However, that first vet fell in love with the two of them and made us promise to treat them like normal cats and not make them house cats with no life.  We agreed and based on the next fifteen years, there is no way they could have been cooped up in a house!

It became clear that the damage done by the breeder was huge. Bonnie still has a terrible fear of shopping bags, I can only imagine she was put in one.  Clyde was also withdrawn when we got him.  For the first two weeks he hid behind furniture and hissed at you if you picked him up. During this time, I would return from work and spend a few hours laying on the conservatory floor trying to engage with the cats. After two weeks I decided a different tack was needed with Clyde and picked him up. He hissed at me and I hissed back – it took him by surprise and he changed immediately to consider the “big cat” his best buddy! There was one disadvantage from Clyde’s change in demeanour, the first few weeks had seen Bonnie being quite outgoing and loving. Clyde being quite a bit larger took over some of this and Bonnie took a step back but she was still the gorgeous loving cat that we were getting to know.

In the first year, the cats did become unwell and Clyde in particular seemed to be suffering.  our vet couldn’t work it out and referred him to a specialist hospital, at great expense to our insurers. They had Clyde for a couple of days and it broke Maria’s heart when she went to see him – a forlorn cat who appeared to be a pin cushion! That didn’t continue, he’s coming home right now and within a couple of days he was back to being the loud boy we had grown to love. This was the first instance of him being the comeback kid.

A perfect example of his personality was one summer when we had a few friends over for a BBQ. Clyde was out wandering around and being sociable as always when suddenly he disappeared as we sat down to eat our burgers, unusual to say the least for Clyde, who likes to share others food! A few minutes later, Clyde reappeared and his absence was explained, he had a live mouse in his mouth. He wandered through the group and those who knew him, knew what was coming next. To various challenges of “no Clyde, don’t!”, he sat in the middle of the lawn and looked at us all. I’m sure you could perceive a nod, oh yes, it’s happening. He ate the mouse in front of us all, including slurping the tail like spaghetti! Terrible cat! 

When I was working in London, I would often leave early and as part of my regime open the doors for the cats to go out – Clyde didn’t like using a little tray unless absolutely necessary and preferred to go outside. Maria would still be tucked up in bed. One morning, Clyde was being vocal on his return as he wandered upstairs to find out where mum was. maria pretended to be asleep as he jumped on the bed and lay on top of her, still shouting. It was then he dropped the dead rat on her face! As I said a terrible cat!

We have other fond memories from the time at the house. Clyde would always be next to me when I mixed music on the decks in the bar. I’m sure he was quite critical at times but he would always be there wanting to be with us.

He was always quite loud but also had a gentle streak. When I was very unwell with food poisoning, I couldn’t leave bed for 24 hours. Clyde was with me the whole time, I swear he knew I wasn’t well and was supporting me in the best way he could by lying full stretch next to me.

We sold the house in Colchester and moved to Ipswich marina on board Mariadz. Clyde enjoyed the freedom and wandering around. He would even go for walks with us around the Marina, stopping with us as we chatted to someone before continuing the walk! When we first had the cats, they were  often walked on leads but it became clear that Clyde liked to walk on the heel, told you, thought he was a dog! On the boat, he was constantly on the table or the chart table and one photo got him the cover shot for a yachting website! His sociability meant he always wanted to be on the table and amongst people. Maria having watched “A Streetcat named Bob” decided she wanted to teach him to do a high five which he learnt really quickly although I am sure that the constant treats when he did it contributed to his learning! But being on the table meant he could see what we were eating which obviously looked a lot more appetising than his food as he mithered Maria for a bit off her plate.  As Maria said, if she has filet steak he would want it, but cook him a filet steak….. hang on, who cooks their cat a filet steak! Clearly spoilt rotten and it led some of our friends to want reincarnation so they could return as Maria’s cat. He did eat his own food, a lot of it but he used a lot of energy so although a big cat, he was never really a fat cat. However, you didn’t want to forget to fill his bowl when you went to bed, around 4am he would become incredibly vocal, jump on the bed and be really affectionate. I would always respond but Maria learnt the hard way that pretending to be asleep would result in a “friendly nip”, a bite on the nose, gentle but hurt all the same – you would then get up and find his bowl empty.

The cats have been well travelled, whether by car, motorhome or boat and have adapted and settled with whatever we have thrown at them. On our motorhome trips, Clyde would want to go outside and explore as soon as we arrived somewhere new. I was concerned because some of these places we would be at for twelve hours but Maria had faith in her boy. Faith that was, on the whole, well deserved. However, like a child being called in when out playing in the summer, Clyde would moan when we called him back. He would shout for the whole of the slow walk back to the boat or motorhome. A number of people asked why our cat was crying, he isn’t he is just chatting and moaning at having to come home. He didn’t always wander off though, sometimes he just wanted to hide in the bushes and chill which brought a game for one summer on Facebook of “where’s Clyde” with a photograph presented and people having to guess where he was hiding this time!

One day in Chablis, he didn’t return to the motorhome. He had gone outside quite late in the evening and we always had a rule that the cats were in at night when we went to bed. Despite a number of calls, Clyde didn’t come back which was very unusual for him. We left the door open but he didn’t return. The next day I spoke to the owners of the vineyard and we searched the village for him fearing the worst. There was no sign of him. We contemplated our second night without him having delayed our departure and again leave the door open. In the early hours, I awake from a light sleep to hear munching at the food bowl.  Bonnie is a gentle eater but Clyde attacks the bowl with gusto. This doesn’t sound like Bonnie, the light goes on and our boy has returned after just over 24 hours. He got a lot of affection from us and a clip round the ear from his sister who had spent the whole day outside the van looking for him. The next day we discovered that the vineyard next door had opened their warehouse at 11pm and he had snuck in before they locked up. Our wonderful vineyard owner had spoken to them and asked them to check and he apparently flew out there and ran back to us.

Just after Covid, we decided to rent a house in the UK partly so that Clyde could have a garden again! He loved the garden and field in Rettendon and spent a lot of time there.  This was also the time that we started to have grandchildren. Kids were not his thing and he would disappear when they arrived, the only exception being recently with Harrison who Clyde responded to!

Clyde started to feel his age and the sun was always something that helped him, warmed his bones and made him feel better. However, you would see him flit from full sun to shade as he got too hot or cooled down.

A few years before he passed, we went to a new vet in Essex who gave us the terrible news that Clyde had bone cancer.  They suggested breaking a bone to take a biopsy to prove what it was. It was clear that this would not change the treatment but would cause him a lot of distress so we didn’t allow the procedure. Having been given only a few months at this stage, it was clear six months later that he didn’t have cancer and this was just his arthritis. We were so glad we listened to our hearts and didn’t cause him unnecessary discomfort. He kept going for two years after that diagnosis.

For the last part of his life, Clyde was in Italy, once again keeping his mum company while I was in working, this time in England. He took to being on the sofa and had his spot, again he would move around as his old bones wouldn’t let him stay in one position for too long – we all know that feeling.  At this stage, he had arthritis and skin conditions which needed treatment. It meant a regular injection for him, which for a long time we did but as his muscles reduced we preferred the vets to do it.  He was always good with vets, as long as they were female, always liking a girl but not trusting the men, apart from his dad :). The medications kept his pain and general discomfort manageable but you could see in how he walked that he was getting old.

Throughout his time in Italy, there have been other cats in the vicinity desperate for some food. Clyde as a big cat was not backing down and would take them all on. Unfortunately a bite from one of these cats has very different effects to cats in the UK. On more than one occasion an infection took hold of Clyde and we needed antibiotics to get him back. Sometimes he would be in a terrible state but would always bounce back.

Clyde’s last fight against Giardia was a bridge too far for our lad. He fought gallantly and even when in hospital wanted to be close to us when we visited him every day. Our last visit was seconds before he went and one consolation is that he was with us when he passed, incredibly upsetting but he wasn’t alone which was important to us.

So our plan of two people, two cats, one dream has been adjusted slightly. As I said to Clyde’s ashes when he returned to us. I wanted him back but not like this! He will still be with us as we go through our adventure but not quite the same.

Clyde was, and still is, our fantastic boy-cat. He was so loving and sociable and we miss him terribly. Bonnie is definitely missing him a lot although like all brothers and sisters they fought as much as they loved each other. He is irreplaceable and I know he was “just a cat” but he was family to us.

Miss you mate.