SAILOR Stuart Rothwell has arrived in port for the last time and planted his feet firmly on dry land by setting up an independent mortgage brokerage.

"It's definitely an unusual change of direction but I'm thoroughly enjoying it," said Mr Rothwell, who now lives in Amberley Way, Wickwar.

His extended tour of duty across Aegean waters began in 1988, after remarking on a love of the sea to one of his regulars during a stint as a barman on the Greek island of Kalymnos.

"As fate would have it, the man turned out to be a skipper with a yacht charter company and he told me they would be looking for another skipper the following summer.

"He trained me up and that was the start of 11 years of sailing groups of holidaymakers around the Aegean."

While based on Kalymnos, Mr Rothwell met and married an island woman, Eleni, but the arrival of two children finally led to him heading back home.

Having decided to educate the children in the UK, the couple took the tough decision to leave the sun and sea.

As the British weather is not great for sailing and Mr Rothwell decided to return to his financial roots, working as a mortgage consultant for Countrywide Assured and then a financial planning manager at HSBC.

The motivation to begin his own business came from Mr Rothwell's desire to provide a completely independent service to prospective home-buyers.

"The new business enables me to look at the full range of mortgages when considering my clients' criteria, rather than being tied to particular lenders," he explained.

"It also means I can provide a more flexible service, as I can meet clients at a time and place to suit them."

Mr Rothwell's sailing expertise is nowadays reserved for weekend trips on a dinghy out of South Cerney Sailing Club.

Stuart Rothwell Mortgages can be contacted on 01454 299041/07754 259169.