About Us
Andy & Ann met in 2007 through a mutual interest in sailing. Exeter St David's station maybe wasn't the most romantic place for our first meeting, but during lunch at Topsham Quay, we both independently decided that perhaps we could go sailing together...
We chartered a number of times during the summer from Liberty Yachts in Plymouth, followed by two weeks in the Ionian, where we chartered a Bavaria 39 from Sail Ionian. It was there that Andy first said "do you think we could do this all the time?"...
We continued spending weekends together and getting to know each other better. When not sailing, we enjoyed walking and exploring both the Cornish coast and the Cotswolds, our respective stamping grounds.
In September 2008, "The Plan" really started to take shape, and a target date of Spring 2010 was set to move aboard. You can read how that, and the subsequent 5 years, panned out at YachtPipit.com.
Andy has spent over 29 years as a Freelance software developer, working in shipping, air traffic management, finance, offshore oil production, fossil and hydro power generation & desalination and TETRA communications industries. When we returned to the UK in 2015 Andy was freelancing for a small software consultancy near Gloucester, working on a diverse range of projects for numerous clients. The commute was a pleasant 20 minutes or so through the Gloucestershire countryside. Since moving to Cornwall Andy's freelance activities have continued to expand.
Ann, via Canada, California, Australia and Cornwall (New York, Paris, PeckhamPenryn?) , has spent many years working in financial
administration, including retail banking, payroll management and then for 15 years as an administration manager at the head office of a national
franchise network. A year after returning to the UK saw Ann land the role of Web Editor for
the Cruising Association - the job description could not have been a better fit if we had written it
ourselves, combining as it does IT and website design skills with the experience of having spent 5 years cruising as a permanent liveaboard. Ann's commute
was even shorter than Andy's, working mainly from home with occasional trips to London, and this has continued since moving to Cornwall.