Archive for May, 2012

Plan 32 B

Over the years our sailing trips  have seldom turned out in the way we originally envisaged . Bad weather, changing forecasts  and a multitude of chance happenings mean that yesterdays plan has to be modified in the light of today’s headwind or toothache or delightful anchorage, and tomorrows plan may well also come a cropper […]

Playing Chicken in the Thames Estuary

In the event , the fog at Ramsgate only delayed us by 12 hours. This is now an extremely busy port serving the wind farms which are spreading like a rash over the Thames estuary . At one time I counted 30 big catamaran workboats in the harbour , and there is seldom a moment […]

Meteorological Vacillations

Its time to wander the seas again. We have run out of reasons to stay: the new hip is in place , racing obsessions are firmly under control, winter work is over and suddenly even the weather has relented . Last year we visited friends on the West Coast of Ireland on our way to […]

Reflections on Getting Older

You would think that regaining control over an addiction should be something to celebrate, or at least give rise to a feeling of pride , but I find my feelings are rather ambivalent. Before you jump to the wrong conclusions and start searching for piles of discarded whisky bottles , its sailboat racing I am […]