August 21st 2018 There is someone else aboard the boat now – a nice young lady (a pretty but homely blonde is the way I imagine her). Each morning she tells me: “It’s Seven O’clock” – or whatever time it happens to be. Whatever else I imagine about this situation, I leave to your imagination… … Read more
August 17th 2018 Horta is one of the great ocean crossroads of the world. Ever since people started voyaging in small boats, they have been coming here. And now I’ve made it. It does feel as if I should have been here before – indeed, one of the first things I did was go and … Read more
August 14th 2018 “You like fishing?” asked the man on the quay at Calheta. Then he thought about it. Evidently that wasn’t quite what he meant. “You like fish?” That was better. Yes, certainly I like fish. However, I was a bit tired of fishermen, having been roused twice in the night to shift further … Read more
August 11th 2018 You expect some things to change in 30 years – it’s just a surprise when they do. The last time I visited Vila Island off Vila do Campo on Sao Miguel in the Azores was in 1987. With a couple of other competitors in the Azores and Back Race from Falmouth, we … Read more
July 18th 2018 This calm has lasted for 18 hours – so far. It is 1145 and I am sure it started before 1800 yesterday. I’ve decided that I like calms. There is absolutely no point in getting worked up about them. I cannot make the wind blow and there is no point whatsoever in … Read more
July 16th 2018 The little black box is indeed about the size of a pack of cigarettes – a little bigger, maybe – but a marvel, nevertheless. Bernard Moitessier dreamed about this. In his book: The Long Way, he mused, deep in the Southern Ocean: “Some day we will have tiny walkie-talkies no bigger than … Read more
Monday July 9th 2018 Start putting together the perfect day and sunshine has to come high on the list. Yes, the sun is shining – just a few high clouds but they’re mostly on the horizon. In this patch of the Atlantic it is a day of blue skies. Blue skies and blue seas – … Read more
August 2nd 2018 I am sitting in a bar in Ponta Delgada, in the Azores waiting for Tamsin to arrive with the youngest two children. They have landed, apparently and will be arriving at our Airbnb apartment whenever the charming Portugese bureaucracy has finished with them (it is charming, very good for the patience and … Read more
