8 years later....

It's blog-anniversary day again! Yup, 8 years ago today this blog began when the dolphin photo above was posted, so its time for a little whoosh through the archives as Buff, Sassi and me share "remember whens?".

Year 1

Things started off bright-eyed and nicely on-topic, with posts on sailing from Lisbon to Gibraltar via Cadiz, the Volvo in-port race in Portsmouth and sailing a Volvo 60 with Emma Richards.

Year 2

"G'day all" said a certain someone as Buff joined the team and things were never quite the same again. Oh, and there was sailing an America's Cup yacht in Sydney and a non-laser sailor sailed a laser (I remember those bruises).

Year 3

JP goes racing: another day out racing on a Volvo 60 at Cowes week followed by the 100th anniversary of the Square Metre rule in Sweden. In America there was an election in which sailing played its part.

Year 4

It's TV time as we launch Top Yacht and JP goes on Dragon's Den. Plus we reveal the Ultimate Walk by the Thames and go on a Sunsail Charter holiday in Greece. Then there was a bit of travel to the Orinoco Delta (possibly with a bit of boating involved) and the mystery of the lost blog post.

Year 5

It's America's Cup year and of course Buff's got the scoop. He also comes with the Buff phonetic alphabet which is Facebook Apple Britney! JP unfortunately turns to the DARK SIDE and is punished for it by a bang to the head by a boom. He also discovers how lambs are navigational hazards and goes up a mountain to meet a monk from south London.

Year 6

It's a great year for Buff: he has his own America's Cup TV show and reveals that JP is a foredeck slacker, but the less said about Buff's phone hacking scandal the better. JP leads the interweb in post-planking stocking, paps Pippa and was not bad at the Fowey Classics Regatta.

Year 7

OMG! It's only Sassi! Yes, we have a new member of the team and what a year it was! There was the Diamond Jubilee, the sail to the Arctic Circle, the Olympics, the Paralympics.... gosh, we're all welling up with emotion at the memories. Plus Buff went swimming and gave us the 50 rules of boating, JP went skiing, visited Helsinki, baked some ship's biscuits and blogged from spaaaaace! OMG!!!

Year 8

So here we are, year 8. And JP's been to Greenland where he had to tow a yacht out of icy fjord after engine failure - which was nothing to Buff's America's Cup adventure. Buff also gave the world his America's Cup drinking game while Sassi got excited when a woman had a baby. JP also got some top tips of sailing photography from Rick Tomlinson, went on an Australian paddle steamer and discovered the answer to the ultimate question was 41.5.

Doesn't that just take the year old ship's biscuit?