John Passmore How about this: 3,747 miles in 29 days. That’s an average of 129 miles a day, or 5.4kts. That’s what you get sailing from St Helena to Grenada. It would have been faster if I’d gone inside the island of Fernando de Noronha off the corner of Brazil, but I had the twin headsails up, … Read more
There, I never thought I would write that as a headline. I hate motoring. It’s noisy and smelly. It’s expensive – also, it’s an admission of defeat. For the sailor to resort to the “iron topsail” just because the wind doesn’t agree to his plans is, somehow, a failure as great as not backing down … Read more
It was 5,133 miles – 47 days. It was my longest passage yet, from Linton Bay in Panama to Douglas, Isle of Man. Without stopping. And it was fairly eventful – which is why, a full two weeks after arriving, I am only just now sitting down to write this. But then the whole trip … Read more
Well, this is a first (mind you, it took me 12 hours to find it!) You can follow my track ‘2025’ at https://www.polarsteps.com/JohnPassmore/15574045-2025?s=B45DE028-9CAF-4BD7-AA23-4771087DDD44
A little while ago, I wrote about giving out cheap reading glasses to the older Guna women in the San Blas islands of Panama. These are the indigenous people who live a simple life on these tiny islands very much as they have for 500 years (ever since the Spanish, Colombians, and finally the Panamanians … Read more
This is Arnold II. RIP Arnold II. I’m getting the hang of this now – although I can’t really take the credit. That must go to Niko Bolas who sent me two electronic mouse traps. Absurdly, I was a bit miffed when they arrived because the parcel I really wanted (the one with the dinghy … Read more
I posted this on Facebook a few days ago. But now I come to think of it, maybe it should be here… Waking up to find Bashir Assad, the ghastly dictator of Syria had been deposed – at least I think he’s been deposed – it took a superhuman effort not to click on a … Read more
RIP Arnold It’s over. After two weeks, five mouse traps, one packet of rat poison, ten helpful suggestions and about a quarter of a jar of peanut butter, Arnold is dead. And I feel awful about it. As a vegetarian sailing a boat with a Buddhist name, we should have done better. But this is … Read more
Nobody rows any more. But it’s important as you get older. I paddle along at walking pace while RIBs roar past at 12 knots, setting all the boats snatching at their anchor chains and shattering the peace. But rowing takes a toll as well. Not on me, you understand. There’s nothing wrong with me – … Read more
I suppose I shall see a lot of beaches in the years to come, but here, today, in Aruba, I really think I have found the best of them – at least, the best so far… It is called Surfside Beach which is really a misnomer since the barrier reef turns this part of the … Read more
