We have all suffered from mosquito bites on this trip – unusual for me as I’ve never been very tasty before! I’m blaming it on my age definitely not my weight! They are very itchy but we have managed to avoid infection just using anthisan cream. Paul has quite a few but rarely complains! Actually he’s doing very well this trip as he usually bangs his head regularly on doorways in boats. He says it’s because we are on a bigger boat or he’ s shrunk!

As he clambers around the boat Harry has managed to stub at least one toe per day (more usually twice, and his record is five times) and he has uttered the odd blue word as a result!

Tom is fighting fit with only a couple of bites barely worth mentioning. He always wears gloves when doing anything involving ropes on or off the boat after the major injury he suffered in Greece three years ago when he virtually ripped off two fingernails! He is very cautious and worries about the rest of us.

Joe after our first days sailing was excited to get the chance to swim. Unfortunately he and we forgot the advice to wear aqua shoes in Croatia and stood on a sea urchin. He had a few black spines imbedded in his heel. Thank goodness for the Internet where we read that if we couldn’t get them out by shaving his heel with a razor (no) or by tweezers (another no) we could dissolve them by soaking his foot in vinegar. Tom and I rushed to the shop but could only find red wine vinegar but thought it would do the trick and we could always make some nice salad dressings! We then discovered a bigger supermarket which did have clear vinegar called Alkoholni Ocat which looked very medicinal so we got that too. Joe spent several hours with his foot in a bucket which did help the pain and we think softened them up but unfortunately we still couldn’t tweezer them out. After one limpy day he was fine and they aren’t bothering him at all. I learned my first Croatian word, “ocat”, and we have made some delicious Greek salads!

As well as my annoying mozzie bites I managed to smash my shin on the second day which immediately came up as an egg. However, after ‘icing’ it with a bag of mozzarella I applied Arnica cream and I’m now a convert as it only ever showed up as a very mild but large bruise when it should have been a purple whopper. Yesterday I managed to trap my finger as I closed a door on it – ouch! Today Joe managed to scrape my leg with his toenail actually drawing blood and Paul when moving his chair in a restaurant pinched my arm between his and mine which was more painful than it sounds and required another application of Arnica so it now just looks like a little love bite. I’ve realised I am quite clumsy.

Only a few more days to go and hoping for nothing more serious although thanks to Tom’s sailing injury last time we do have a mega first aid kit on board.