For anyone interested in small-boat voyaging – or indeed, any sailor wanting to get seriously close to the sea itself, The Lugworm Chronicles by Ken Duxbury is a ‘must-read’. I,…
Great Seamanship
Great seamanship: The Voyage of the Aegre
Back in July 1973, Nicholas Grainger and his wife, Julie, sailed from north-west Scotland bound for the oceans of the world. Their boat was a 21ft clinker-built traditional Shetland Islander,…
Great seamanship: Bound for Cape Horn
Read about sailing all your life and you won’t find another book quite like Bound for Cape Horn, with its interesting subtitle Skills for Expedition Cruising. Any suggestion this might…
When a sailor and a chicken took on an incredible voyage
Say what you will, but the French have got style. We Anglo-Saxons may fancy ourselves as adventurers, but then along comes an unsponsored lad from North Brittany in a 30ft…
15,000 miles around Europe’s far north in a windsurfer camping under a sail – a fascinating tale
Most of my deepwater sailing I’ve done in conventional yachts or classics. Board sailing and windsurfers, although I tried my hand years back and enjoyed it, are a world of…
Climbing a square rigger mast in the heart of a storm
The world of square riggers is obscure to the vast majority of sailors today. Yet nautical literature is rich in fine works describing the minutiae of what went on –…
Sailing a junk rigged schooner in Greenland
Dave Leet’s Nomad is a junk-rigged schooner which he sails mostly single-handed. He certainly puts the miles in, because although this article is about his experiences in West Greenland, when…
The Sea and The Snow: a stunning tale of adventure
In the world of small-craft seafaring and modern mountaineering, 1964/5 seems very distant. Philip Temple’s remarkable work The Sea and The Snow, recently republished, brings those days straight to our…
Dream of the West Indies: four schoolboys on a transatlantic adventure
In the summer of 1983, a group of very young Norwegians set out on a round trip to the Caribbean in Jeanette VI, a 35ft Vindø yacht they chartered from…
Long Lost Log: Pincher’s tale of storms and rows
Michael Chapman Pincher, son of the great investigative journalist, left school at 17 to become a stagehand in London’s West End. At 23 in 1974 he quit and went to…
Great Seamanship: sailing through desert storms in the Suez Canal
Sailing Suleika by Dennis Krebs is a long sea-mile from a typical description of an extended cruise. Dennis met up with the 43ft steel ketch and her redoubtable skipper, Sally,…
Solo mast climb in a mid-Atlantic squall: Emma Richards’ Around Alone
In 2002, Emma Richards (now Sanderson) was the youngest person and the first British woman to finish the ‘Around Alone’ race. Sailing the Open 60 Pindar, she was pipped at…
Sailing across the mouth of the Amazon Delta in a 21ft Herreshoff
Stephen Ladd is a city planner from the US who opted for a better life. Not being inclined to luxury, his first book goes under the title Three Years in…
Roving Commissions extract: Calm in the Storm
Not for the first time, the Royal Cruising Club’s wonderful annual journal Roving Commissions has turned up a jewel of seamanship. Delving into the 2021 edition I found an account…
Penelope Down East – essays in singlehanded sailing
I was involved in a discussion the other day about the essence of seamanship. A number of folk were taking part and we had much of what you’d expect; tales…
An Arctic adventure: ice-bound in Spitsbergen
Andrzej Jankowski, better known as Captain Andy, is a one-off. I met him in Warsaw when I was launching a book of my own, translated into Polish. His book’s title,…
Letters from the Lost Soul extract
The author of Letters from the Lost Soul Robert B Lipkin (better known as Bob Bitchin) has certainly done his time in deep water and shoal, much of it in…
Great seamanship: Taken by the wind
Mike Jacker is a retired orthopaedic surgeon living in Illinois. Among many other activities he still sails his boat, now mainly on Lake Michigan, but he has a long memory.…
I married an Explorer extract: exploring the far north
Today, the auxiliary schooner Bowdoin operates under the flag of the Maine Maritime Academy, making training runs to Labrador and Greenland. Launched in 1921, the 66-ton Bowdoin was the brainchild…
Great Seamanship: Where the Trade Winds Blow
Lou Boudreau shipped out of Nova Scotia in the 1950s at five months old in the 98ft schooner Doubloon. His father, Captain Walter Boudreau, was one of the pioneers of…