John Passmore

The stopover in Torquay was supposed to be a relaxing few days of light provisioning interspersed with a couple of good meals in company. Instead, it started off with a godawful thrash round to Dartmouth, motorsailing into a Force6 to get the autopilot fixed. No fewer than three electronics engineers had fiddled with this, but … Read more

It was half an hour before the boat was due to be hauled out. The new engine was due to arrive tomorrow. It was all going to be very expensive. And then a woman I had never met before knocked on the coachroof: “I’ve been reading your blog. Your overheating trouble: Have you looked at … Read more

The Aries never had a name. I did try to call my windvane self-steering “Arnold” for a while, but somehow that didn’t stick. Instead, I called the rat that joined me in Santa Marta “Arnold”. It seemed entirely appropriate. Mind you, he never answered to it, and then I electrocuted him anyway – which made … Read more

383 miles. Six Days, No engine. No self-steering. Two calls from the Coastguard: “Do you require assistance?” No.   I came to Galway because it wasn’t Killybegs. I had been in Killybegs for a month for what we might call the “Major Works”, and there really isn’t much to the place apart from the boatyard. … Read more

  You know you’re in a different league when the shipwright suggests making the new hatch cover out of aluminium. But I did say that Mooney Boats in Killybegs on the northwest coast of Ireland caters primarily for fishing boats. Big fishing boats. There’s a Killybegs boat working the waters of Chile at the moment. … Read more

The “Voyage” books have become something of a success. People like the “stream-of-consciousness” style. They say it is like going along for the trip (without the discomfort and worries about running out of beer). So, it occurred to me that when I made a passage of more than a couple of days, I might log … Read more

You know all that emergency kit you’ve got hidden away around the boat? The softwood plugs for skin fittings, the underwater epoxy, twin spinnaker poles that you never use but might make a jury rig one day… I’ve got a book called Singlehanded Sailing: Thoughts, Tips, Techniques & Tactics by an American called Andrew Evans. … Read more

 I went out to lunch yesterday. Actually, the whole purpose of coming to this deserted anchorage was to go out to lunch. It was blowing like stink, the skies were cloudy, and from time to time a handful of rain blew in through the hatch. I reckon I deserved lunch. There is supposed to be … Read more

If you’re going to start varnishing, you have to get off the boat. Well actually, once you finish varnishing, you have to get off the boat. The table looked wonderful: That deep, intense shine you get from being too impatient to do it properly with twelve thin coats and instead you ladle it on as … Read more

So far the record is seven years – I met a German who said had spent seven years in the San Blas and not left the islands even for a day. There are said to be 365 of them and the climate is perfect all the year round (you do get a few rain squalls … Read more