In 2023, when we were working on Kim at Port Napoleon, we rented an apartment in Port St Louis du Rhone, which overlooked the port and the sea lock which gives access to the Mediterranean from the river Rhone. One day we noticed a British yacht alongside the wall in the port, and we went over to speak to them. The boat was Options, a Southerly 115 centreboarder, crewed by a married couple, Jonathan and Sheena.
They were friendly and engaging, and had brought Options to the Mediterranean through the French canal and river system, like we had done with Mitch. We socialised with them, and they introduced us to their friend Marcus, a fellow aluminium boat owner, who helped us a good deal with Kim. We watched slightly enviously as they set off from Port Napoleon on their way east – we were anxious to escape ourselves, but we still had a good deal of work to do on Kim.
Jonathan and Sheena keep a video record of their travels, and have a YouTube channel, Sailing Options, (Sailing Options - YouTube). Their videos are excellent productions and full of interest, not only entertaining in their own right, but a very useful source of information for anyone intending to cruise the French waterway system and the Mediterranean. I think we have watched all of them.
In January 2025 we had well and truly escaped Port Napoleon, and had taken Kim out of the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic. We were in Port Elizabeth on the island of Bequia, returning laden with bags to the dinghy dock after a shopping trip ashore when a familiar voice with a distinctly Northern accent asked “have you been provisioning?”. I looked up and recognised Jonathan, and then Sheena. This was quite a coincidence, and Jonathan’s account of how he made his way to Bequia was very interesting.
He had planned to join the crew of a yacht participating in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), an annual event in which a number of yachts sail between Grand Canary and St Lucia. Accommodation and flights had been organised for family members, at considerable expense, but at the last moment the yacht’s owner was forced to pull out, and Jonathan was the only member of his family that would not be spending Christmas in the West Indies.
Eventually, Jonathan found a berth aboard Iola, a Rival 38, and successfully crossed the Atlantic aboard her to St Lucia. Rival 38s are very traditional sailing yachts - conservative, strong and sea-kindly. I met the designer, Peter Brett, in slightly unfortunate circumstances in 1979. Returning from the Azores in my 26’ Stella class sloop, Pegasus, we were just off the Lizard when we saw what I think was the prototype Rival 38 with Brett aboard, dismasted. He was remarkably cheerful, and when we offered him a tow, he declined. I believe that the dismasting was caused by a fatigue failure in an insufficiently articulated rigging screw.
Jonathan and Sheena were in Bequia in a chartered a 46’ Bavaria yacht, much larger than Options, and they were enjoying a brief spell of Caribbean cruising. We met them again in Rodney Bay, St Lucia, at the end of the charter, as well as Lawrence, the skipper of Iola.
I thoroughly recommend the Sailing Options videos, and look forward to seeing more of them as they cruise further east in the Mediterranean.
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