Manuela, 68, and Ian, 62, bonded in 2004 over their love of boats. They soon became a couple and are now on the final leg of a round-the-world trip. In the summer of 2004, Manuela had been living in London for more than a decade, and loved her life in the city. “I was on my own in a flat and working in an administrative role at the BBC,” she says.
![[Ian in pink shorts and grey T-shirt and Manuela in colourful dress and red straw hat standing in the sea in Mauritius]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4aeaf2a10d02e8a420704277a737ce7840f14008/0_378_2296_3406/master/2296.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
As part of her job, she organised a first aid course for staff. “When I got there, the security guard asked when my course was starting because someone had already arrived,” she says. It was Ian, an engineering manager who went sailing in his spare time. “I’d woken up early that day and gone straight to the training session,” he says. They didn’t speak that morning, but during the lunch break, he asked Manuela about good places to eat nearby.
As they were chatting, Manuela noticed Ian was wearing a T-shirt advertising the Fastnet sailing race. “I knew it was quite a difficult race because, many years before, I’d done a bit of sailing, so I asked him about it,” she says. Delighted that she had showed interest in his passion, Ian suggested she join him on a trip. “I told her I had a boat and was always looking for crew,” he laughs.
Manuela was “suitably impressed” and decided it might be a good opportunity to get back into sailing. They met up a few more times as friends before she took him up on his offer. Ian then signed them up for the Fastnet race in 2005, sailing from Cowes along the south coast to Land’s End, around Ireland and back into Plymouth. They saw each other frequently for practice throughout the year. “There was a spark, but we were both coming out of relationships so nothing happened between us for a long time,” says Manuela.
