This year, I will be writing and sending Christmas cards. Last year, I didn’t send any. Last December was spent trying to sail ‘Else’ round from North Devon and then make her habitable in time for Christmas. In the middle of the trip the storm surge flooded the studio and the rest of the month continue reading »
We’re finally home. Eight weeks after leaving Else in Nauerna I was heading back to Holland on the night ferry. The repairs were finished, the weather fair and I had an experienced and willing crew in Dutchman Fred Schotman who had offered to help me home. Steffan van Hattum at Jacht Service Haarlem did a continue reading »
I’m writing this on board ‘Ellen’ anchored on the River Deben in Suffolk, just off a pretty wooded beach called the Rocks. Terns are swooping close by, their calls shrill but kinder on the ear than the boat’s anchor alarm, which goes off regularly enough to stop me getting complacent about the holding quality of continue reading »
Intrepid sailors are a bit like buses – you don’t meet any for ages and then suddenly there’s a whole succession of fascinating salty coves to blog about. It was my enjoyable task recently to introduce the launch of Shirley Billing’s latest book Passport to Adventure, the third and final stage of a circumnavigation that started continue reading »