We did not set out to become adventurers.

We were two ordinary people with jobs, responsibilities and a growing feeling that the life we were working towards was not the life we really wanted.

In the 1990s, we asked ourselves a dangerous question:

What would we do if we stopped waiting for the “right time” to live differently?

Our answer was ridiculous, risky and life-changing.

We decided to build a 44ft steel sailing yacht from scratch while still working full-time.

That yacht became Ruffles Spray.

In 2002, we left the UK aboard Ruffles Spray with our dogs, Mitzie and Monty, and sailed away towards the Mediterranean. What followed was not a holiday, not a gap year and not a polished escape plan. It was real life afloat: storms, mistakes, repairs, beautiful anchorages, hard decisions, friendship, loss, laughter and years of living differently.

That journey became the Getting Away book series, written by Mike Ruffles and narrated by Mitzie, our ship’s dog.

After 15 years living aboard and cruising the Mediterranean, we eventually returned to the UK. We sold Ruffles Spray, tried life on land, spent time motorhoming, and settled for a while in a flat.

But dry land never felt quite right.

We still needed to be close to the water.

That led us first to narrowboat Wright Away, and later to our 60ft narrowboat Rasmunda, where we now live aboard on a residential mooring in Worcester.

This website is the home of that continuing story.

It is about the books, the boats, the decisions, the mistakes, the practical realities, and the quiet refusal to sleepwalk through the years.

We escaped the rat race once by yacht.

Now the story continues on the inland waterways.