June 2010 - Di and Paddy Burke, Kitara - What a lovely surprise to find our names on your roll of round the world sailors from the RCYC. We left on the Uruguay Race in January 1982. Our daughter Zoe was conceived in Uruguay and born in Ireland in November 1982 and our son Joshua was conceived in Venezuela and born in the Azores in 1985. We spent 9 years in the Atlantic crossing it several times and left St Barths on the first leg of our circumnavigation back to Cape Town in July 1991. We arrived back at RCYC in January 1993 and left again in May 1994 in Kitara and the children completed their circumnavigation in St Barths later that year. We then sailed between St Barths and the USA twice and spent from 1997 to 2000 based in Miami. In 2000 Paddy sailed the boat single handed (with our cat Greenwich) from Miami to the Mediterranean via Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Azores, and Kitara is now moored in Adra, Spain where we bought a house in 2003. The rest of the family flew to Surrey, England in 2000 for the children to complete their education. We are moving down to Spain full-time later this year and plan to do some more cruising in Kitara.

That's it in a nutshell! We financed our cruising by working along the way - I worked as a secretary, events organiser and teacher of English as a foreign language. Paddy played the classical guitar and made them on board. His website is www.patrickburkeguitars.com. Joshua who plays the violin gave his first concert with his father on St Helena in 1994. Zoe is now a teacher of English as a foreign language in London. Joshua is doing his Masters in violin at the Royal College of Music, London

Thanks for organising this roll.
Best wishes
Di and Paddy