The Fisherman had died. This came as a bolt out of the blue, while I was still in the UK preparing for my return to Martinique at the end of the summer of 2019. He was almost the first person I’d met when I’d first arrived on the island, what seemed like a mini-lifetime ago. […]
14th June 2019, I wrote in my journal: Yesterday was a day of single-handing hell so today I’ve been pretty downhearted. I’ve been feeling that this is my last sailing adventure with Anne Bonny and I can’t wait to put her up for sale in September, now my Antigua mission is complete. Yesterday made me […]
Marco and I had a car, and I was driving him round the island. He wasn’t sure about my driving style, but I was older than him and so the hire for me as pilot had been cheaper. It was hard to get lost on an island with so few roads, but we were managing […]
I was pretending not to be nervous as I flagged down my bus, my takeaway canteen lunch in hand. I’ve always had a weird self-consciousness in new places – like I don’t want to show my vulnerability. I want to seem like everything I do is completely old hat, done hundreds of times before, because […]
I was halfway across the channel between Les Saintes and mainland Guadeloupe, and feeling spectacular. As I’d been leaving that morning, an Australian guy on an SUP had paddled up to me for a chat. He gave me the simple advice that with the wind strength and direction, I could take it easy and just […]
Catch-up: early 2017 I’d bought a boat in Martinique where I worked, left it in Guadeloupe for hurricane season with a friend, become trapped there without a working engine, had faced 2 major hurricanes, had floundered around needing help from everyone, and eventually escaped my marina prison to finally get to a place where I could haul her out and do the work I […]
Catch-up: early 2017 I’d bought a boat in Martinique where I worked, left it in Guadeloupe for hurricane season with a friend, become trapped there without a working engine, had faced 2 major hurricanes, had floundered around needing help from everyone, and eventually escaped my marina prison to finally get to a place where I could haul her out and do the work I […]
Catch-up: early 2017 I’d bought a boat in Martinique where I worked, left it in Guadeloupe for hurricane season with a friend, become trapped there without a working engine, had faced 2 major hurricanes, had floundered around needing help from everyone, and eventually escaped my marina prison to finally get to a place where I could haul her out and do the work I […]
Catch-up: early 2017 I’d bought a boat in Martinique where I worked, left it in Guadeloupe for hurricane season with a friend, become trapped there without a working engine, had faced 2 major hurricanes, had floundered around needing help from everyone, and eventually escaped my marina prison to finally get to a place where I could haul her out and do the work I […]
Catch-up: early 2017 I’d bought a boat in Martinique where I worked, left it in Guadeloupe for hurricane season with a friend, become trapped there without a working engine, had faced 2 major hurricanes, had floundered around needing help from everyone, and eventually escaped my marina prison to finally get to a place where I could haul her out and do the work I […]
The Fisherman had died. This came as a bolt out of the blue, while I was still in the UK preparing for my return to Martinique at the end of the summer of 2019. He was almost the first person I’d met when I’d first arrived on the island, what seemed like a mini-lifetime ago. […]
14th June 2019, I wrote in my journal: Yesterday was a day of single-handing hell so today I’ve been pretty downhearted. I’ve been feeling that this is my last sailing adventure with Anne Bonny and I can’t wait to put her up for sale in September, now my Antigua mission is complete. Yesterday made me […]