A few years ago we were at the Istanbul boatshow giving a talk for the wonderful Gezgin Korsan. The ‘Sailing Pirates’ are a group of keen cruising sailors who took…
Sailing Blogs
Mooring mayhem: How a two-hour limit led to a close encounter with a high-vis bailiff – Dick Durham
A hot weekday morning heralded the arrival of Betty II alongside the floating pontoon at Rowhedge, near Colchester. A sign warned that mooring was limited to two hours – a…
Getting away from it all? How the relentless news cycle follows you even when sailing offshore
A new factor in this modern age of cruising is the relationship between the rolling news cycle and crews at sea. Ashore, news is now a relentless, inescapable 24/7 battering…
From Vancouver To Alaska: Why Pete Goss Is Trading His Charts For A Fishing Rod
Being on the water is how I find solace, which comes in many forms. One of which, new to me, came after an invitation to go salmon fishing in a…
‘There is nothing difficult about using marine-friendly suncream’ – Lu Heikell
Almost every day we are alerted to a crisis, be it social, political economic or environmental. It is easy to feel overwhelmed and start to block out everything and assume…
Inside the ‘shuddering blancmange’: Pete Goss gets a liferaft reality check
Battling inside an orange blancmange which is in the shuddering throws of a major fit, it strikes me that a liferaft is not the place to be. This is a…
‘With scientists on board, I get force-fed fun and helpful knowledge day in and night out’
I could spend my life sailing towards the horizon. To save my soul, as solo sailor Bernard Moitessier famously said when he turned the boat around to keep sailing instead…
‘Fitting the catamaran’s two hulls into a berth for one just wasn’t going to work’ – Lu Heikell
Driving down to Greece this spring with a car full of bits for Skylax was a bit of a shock to the system. It was the first time we had…
‘An orange glow lit up the horizon: an oil tanker had been torpedoed’ – Dick Durham
Inside an old jewellery box sits a yellowing fang set in a gold mount. It is the triangular molar wrenched from a shark jaw trolled for somewhere in the South…
‘We tied up our wet boat, with wet ropes, to the wet quay’ – Libby Purves
Shuddering our way through the latest cold front, accompanied by dank spring drizzle, it seems fitting to talk of the glory of dryness. A lot of our sailing, down the…