It’s a damn tough life full of toil and strife we whalemen undergo And we don’t give a damn when the whaling’s done how hard the wind does blow For we’re homeward bound from the Arctic ground with a good ship taut and free And we won’t give a damn when we drink our rum continue reading »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »