Uncategorized

History

by

Tell me this isn’t weird. I am in Liverpool. Last night I was in Leeds. I had taken my daughter Lottie out to dinner. She’s in her final year at the University there. Lottie is named after the little catamaran I capsized and lost 80 miles north of the Shetland Islands five months before she … Read more

Refit

by

Rather like the Second Coming or the new series of  The Crown, the Great Refit has been anticipated for a long time. Now it’s here, I feel somewhat overwhelmed. For one thing, The List has been growing steadily for five years. The boat hasn’t been out of the water for more than a couple of … Read more

Huel

by

  After a week or two, food assumes an importance far greater than mere sustenance. Read any account of the great singlehanded voyages, and you will find references to curry (Knox-Johnston), plums and cheese (Slocum), Worcestershire Sauce (Thompson). It was halfway through Pete Goss’s Close to the Wind and finding him desperately looking forward to … Read more

Twings

by

People kept asking if I would do a video tour of Samsara. It wasn’t that I was trying to hide anything, but rather I couldn’t work out how to do it while holding the phone in one hand. Then last week, my son Hugo came to join me in Jersey, and we ended up in … Read more

Shipwreck

by

This is going to be a “Think Piece”. A Think Piece – from my old newspaper days – was when something significant happened, and the editor needed to give it the appropriate amount of space but had run out of facts to put in it. All that was left were “Thoughts” – and very often, … Read more

A new book – out today!

by

  When I returned to the UK from the Caribbean, people asked: “Did you have a good trip?” And I said: “Yes, lovely, thanks.” Because it was – but it was more than that. As with any voyage, it had its own special character – the moments that will remain in the memory forever (and … Read more

Reefing

by

It is five o’clock in the morning, and I have just woken up to hear the wind charger in full cry as the boat jumps off a wave and the phone joins me in bed, painfully. Well, I won’t need the alarm now, will I? This is what you get for promising your 15-year-old grandson … Read more

The very big anchor

by

This was being sensible: Tom Fisher was on his way over for the Yealm in Bonny. The first time I met Tom for a drink, we sat up over the rum bottle until three in the morning. Add to that Connor Brosan and Alan Laine on their way from Salcombe in Feeling Groovy, and obviously … Read more

The blog is back!

by

It is with great relief that I can confirm the Oldmansailing blog is back. It has been an anxious week waiting for it to reappear. I left Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands on June 11th. On June 13th, 318 miles in the vague direction of a waypoint somewhere 100 miles east of … Read more

Rum again

by

  For all those people who were so disparaging about my penchant for Aldi’s £9.99 rum: a parting gift to myself as I leave the Caribbean. The immigration officer just asked what was my next port of call? I had to say something, so I said, “Falmouth”. “Falmouth Antigua?” No, Falmouth UK. We’ll see. It’s … Read more