The Plan

We aim to be very relaxed and flexible about our route and timings. Our limited experience and that of other people suggests that plans don't count for much in the relaxed world of long-term cruising. As a rough guide, we aim to leave on or soon after 15 June 2004 and cruise down the west coasts of France, Spain and Portugal, before spending the winter in the Algarve.

In 2005 we expect to go into the Med, first spending some time in Spain and the Balearics, which we understand are best visited in May. After that things get more vague, but we expect to take the boat ashore for the month of August for essential maintenance, and fly back to the UK for a couple of weeks.

All to be explored?

We don't yet know where we'll go after that, or where we'll spend the next winter. The overall plan is to visit Corsica, Sardinia, Croatia, Greece and its islands (probably not all of them!), Turkey, Cyprus, Malta and probably Tunisia.

On returning westward, if we're still feeling enthusiastic, we'll turn left for the Canaries, then return via Madeira and the Azores. Our initial estimates suggest that we won't be able to do all that in less than 5 years, ie returning in 2010. But, who knows? We read one story of a couple who planned to spend a summer cruising in the Med after the chap retired, and eventually returned 14 years later, and then only because of health problems.