What an interesting time we are having. Our trusty and well loved Open 60 ‘Toe in the water’ has finally been sold.

It is quite a mixed time for us – rather sad at the thought of our trusty boat going to pastures new, especially after she looked after Steve so well during the 2008/09 Vendée Globe. Steve sailed into Les Sables d’Olonne in 8th place – quite a remarkable achievement for our ‘old’ boat. Yes she did have a few issues on her way around the globe this time, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a bit of Dyneema and lashings of epoxy, thanks to her ingenious skipper!

We are also quite happy that ‘Toe in the water’ will be off to her new home in Australia, where her new owner is hopeful to secure himself a place on the start line of the next Vendée Globe in 2012 – we wish him well on his adventure!

‘Toe in the water’ will have yet another guise – once ‘Gartmore’ built and sailed around the world in 2000/01 by Josh Hall. Then she became ‘Pindar’ and successfully carried the then Emma Richards, safely around the world. From there she was involved in various other races until her next ‘tour du mond’ in the hands of Charles Heidrich. She then came into our ownership – we loved our boat and still do – she has been a pleasure to own and look after, paying us back with some fantastic sailing and brilliant memories – sailing with a smile while green water cascades over the deck – heeled over skimming along in the sunshine. I think everyone who boarded her for a sail got off with a grin that lasted them days. She made her way rather beautifully through the southern Ocean on more than one occasion – It really is like saying goodbye to an old friend.

Now the next chapter begins…

We still don’t have a sponsor for our ‘Westabout’ and Vendée Globe 2012 campaign, but we work on that every day and continue to be positive and hopeful as always. Now we feel like one chapter is complete and we did the things that we set out to do, and we did them pretty well all in all. Now to move forward, secure that Volvo 70 and get ready to set off around the world the ‘wrong way‘ …….