The Crew

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Skipper
Chris (35) is the skipper. In his previous life (before setting sail on this adventure!) he was "in computers" although he often reassures me that he was just the tea-boy. At the age of about 7, his parents introduced him to sailing when they bought a small cruising yacht to sail on the River Blackwater on the east coast. Chris bought himself a Shearwater catamaran dinghy in the summer of 1984, with the proceeds from a summer job following his O'levels, and joined the Osea Sailing club. He participated in racing for a number of years until he went on to university.

First Mate
My name is Elaine, (33) and for nearly eight years I survived (and sometimes enjoyed!) my life as a Primary School Teacher. I have crewed for Chris since 1985 when we were at school in Maldon, and particularly liked the Shearwater as it never capsized! The Fireball dinghies we sailed, after the catamaran had been written off in the 1987 hurricane, were rather unstable for my liking. My teacher training college took me away from the coast, to Oxford, and so began a period in our lives with no sailing. 

Our Sailing Background
Several years living in Oxfordshire proved hopeless for continuing with the hobby, until one London Boatshow in January 1996, when we discovered Sunsail Flotilla Holidays in Greece. Four months later we were onboard Lavezzi, a Beneteau Oceanis 320, in the Ionian, learning how to moor 'bows to'. I had been on Chris' uncle's yacht once, and that was my complete yachting experience at that time. I took to it! Much better than capsizing dinghies, I thought. 
We repeated the same holiday for two more years, by which time the opportunity to move to Southampton had arisen and we found ourselves living in Ocean Village! We promptly joined the Royal Southampton Yacht Club and Chris signed us up to the RYA Day Skipper Theory course. We both successfully completed it and had in the meantime been looking at a variety of yachts, with the main aim of racing in the Solent. We bought La Premiere in March 1999 and took part in the Beneteau Cup and the Royal Dart Regatta that season, as well as a rally to Guernsey with friends in the RAF Yacht Club and various cruising weekends around the Solent. The bug had bitten and we decided to investigate sailing further a field. (See The Grand Plan!)

Cabin Girl

Poppy Galatea joined the crew of Barrique on 26th February 2003.  It could be said that she has already cruised a fair distance, through the French Canals and along the south coast of England while safely growing inside my tummy!  Being a "water baby" hopefully she will take to life on the sea like a duck to water!

The Ship's Cat
Giblet (meaning "little cat from Gibraltar", not chicken intestines!) joined the crew at the end of November 2000 in Gibraltar, having been found, stray, on a beach beside the airport. The RSPCA could not find her owners and nobody else wanted her, so we were duly adopted! She is finding her sea legs but you will have to read the Log entries to find out about her many adventures.