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 […]
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 […]
Catch-up: 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 […]
I started this writing project trying to be a blog (and if you’ve just arrived, here’s where to start), with posts having a central standalone premise, loosely held together by the memoir structure of how I got into sailing. I’m dropping that pretence now, because in reality it’s a story, and can’t be forced into […]
September 2017 brought Hurricane Irma; the first category 5 hurricane to be recorded in the Leeward Islands (before Maria showed up 2 weeks later). It had maximum wind strength of 180mph and waves of around 10m in some places. Across the region there were at least 134 Irma-related deaths. Landfall was in Antigua and Barbuda, […]
‘In 1928 I had my first experience of a hurricane,’ my grandmother Joyce had written in her journal chronicling her life in Antigua. After an eventful summer in Europe, I was rejoining my bateau in Guadeloupe during peak hurricane season. Part of the reason I’d chosen Guadeloupe was that it was the next island from […]
My first Transatlantic crossing in May 2017 was tough but not for the reasons I was expecting. Although I didn’t learn much about practical sailing, I learnt a lot about leadership and mental health on board, especially when you’re isolated from the world with just a few companions to keep you sane (or drive you […]
Seasickness, in fact any kind of motion sickness, is something I’ve been plagued by all my life. Long, vomity car rides; being miserable and nauseous on every boat I’d ever been on up until this point; even park swings as an adult were rides of gastronomical danger (adults can still go on park swings, goddamnit […]
I’d bought my bateau because I wanted to learn how to sail. Seems like a simple idea, right? Many people are advised to start off in a sort of apprenticeship mode, learning the ropes (literally) on other people’s boats. Take some courses, spend time seeing how it’s done with the experts before sinking a load […]
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 […]