Blog Archive

Diary of a roving art tutor (1)

Week One: Barbados to Mexico The cut is deep and narrow But it lets a big ship through So thank you to the men Who sliced a continent in two First of the Gatun locks on the Atlantic side The Panama Canal has always been a source of fascination for me – the audacity of continue reading »


Sketching my way to Sydney

At the age of twelve I sailed aboard the P&O liner ‘Orsova’ from Singapore to London. This was a sensible long haul travel option in the sixties, especially when you were moving house from one side of the world to the other. My father’s spells of duty as meteorologist lasted about three years, and we continue reading »


Devices and desires

The first time I lived afloat was twenty five years ago, on a tiny gaff cutter, a mile upriver from my current mooring. Each summer I set sail with a crew and headed off down Channel to the West Country, the Scillies or Brittany, taking in festivals of sail along the way and trying, not continue reading »


Updates and inspirations

Good morning all, from a misty morning on the River Deben where I am sitting up in bed, drinking tea and have told myself to stop faffing around and get this blog post finished. Trouble is, the longer I leave it, the more stuff happens and then I don’t know where to start. So first continue reading »


Sailing and sogginess

Each summer I try and have a little adventure. It usually involves messing about on the water on other people’s boats, though last year I took my home with me and that turned out more adventurous than I would have liked – remember my ‘stranded in Haarlem’ espisode? That escapade proved disastrously expensive, so this continue reading »