We realise we're biased, but we think Makarma is totally wonderful, apart from being utterly disobedient when going astern, which means that we're often the afternoon's entertainment when we berth in an unfamiliar marina. She's a heavy displacement, long keel blue water cruising yacht. Canoe sterned with a transom-hung rudder and portholes set into the hull, she is unusual enough to attract attention wherever she goes.   For now, she's berthed in Ayamonte on the Guadiana River, which forms the boundary between Portugal and Spain. This is our cruising base until we give ourselves a chunk of time to go further - where, we don't know yet.

Leighton had done a little weekend sailing in the Solent and fought to keep the family Laser upright on the local reservoir. Cathy did loads of dinghy sailing as a child and later spent summers cruising along the Channel coast and Brittany in a series of family Moodys and Westerlys. We were probably mad and certainly utterly unprepared for what we took on when we bought Makarma in May 2002.  Before that, our first outing together in sole charge of a boat was a flotilla holiday in Croatia, when we won the prize for best amphibious landing – a small matter of pranging the bow on the harbour wall when the stern kedge warp fouled.

We've got a bit more clued up since then, but there's always loads more to learn. And not just the practical stuff. It's all about learning to trust the boat and each other; how to deal with things when they go wrong, which is quite often; how to take things slowly; how to let go of shore life (we still haven't got this one cracked yet). Here are the logs of some of our cruising adventures.