The Adventures of Dofesaba II 2021

About the Book

This is the third book to be published featuring our adventures with our Southerly 42RST sailing yacht. Previous books have described taking Dofesaba II down the Canals du Midi to the port of Leucate where it was wintered. The second book tells you about our adventures down the East coast of Spain, passing many places where British holiday makers often go for their summer holidays. Then continues in part II towards the final destination of Lagos in Portugal, via Gibraltar. This, the third book completes the circumnavigation of Iberia, and includes details of the massive crash we had offshore Portugal and what happened after that. If you are a fellow cruising sailor I hope you take away from this tale that even when things are at their darkest and Death is knocking on the door, there is always light at the end of the tunnel and nearly everything can be fixed, it just takes time and a very good insurance policy. I wrote these books mainly for my own purposes, but book one and two went down very well, and so I had to continue with book three. It was also very cathartic to write about our unpleasant accident, it was also very difficult to do so, as I had to stop many times trying to get through the narrative. I hope you will agree that I just about managed it. Sailors who read this will be disappointed that we only sailed for 10% of the time, but that is the harsh reality of going the wrong way round Iberia, particularly trying to head North up the Portuguese coast in the summer, believe me I tried to sail, as it is cheaper. The wind gods did not allow it. Intrigued, I hope so; read on and enjoy.

About the Author

Peter Bell and his wife Mary came to sailing late in the day. Both were Scout Leaders and brought their family up to love the outdoors and to be self-sufficient. Peter was a Mountain Leader in Snowdonia until the rules changed and his body stopped working well enough to go up and down. Mary decided he needed a new hobby, on the flat, and so they went cruising on flotillas in Greece. After 3-4 years they bought Dofesaba – a Southerly 110 and two years later upgraded to the S42 RST – in their opinion, the pride of the fleet. In the meantime Peter did Day Skipper, Trans Channel course and Yacht Master Theory exams. Since then, up to 2021 they have ‘Cruised’ over 11000 miles, with many Adventures. Like many mature couples that are mostly retired they have used their summers ‘wisely’. However, few have the ability to take their boat down the Canals du Midi – so they had to try, and did. They then decided to turn right and go the wrong way around Iberia “just for fun”. Well some of it was and some of it certainly wasn’t. This their third book is the story of their 2021 adventures, which tested their mettle as a crew and as cruising sailors.

Peter and Mary live in Lymington and use the RLymYC often. Peter has been known to give lectures on his yearly adventures.