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…
Great Seamanship
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…
Into the Southern Ocean – navigating by sextant in the south
Rudyard Kipling famously wrote that the complete person can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same. Most books of the sea end with some…
Trapped upside down in the North Sea
John Passmore is a man unafraid to move with the times. A professional journalist with a distinguished newspaper career, he now hosts a powerful online presence in the guise of…
Taking the Helm: Tales of leading a Whitbread team
The Whitbread Round the World race/Volvo Ocean Race has a precedent for replacing skippers in Uruguay and Taking the Helm, recounts what happened after one such moment. Skip Novak took…