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Inverness to Dunstaffnage -Gearbox Problem – Scoresby Sund Expedition Leg 3
6th August 2025 Reading Time: Fifteen minutes Storm Floris was due to pass over Scotland on Monday 4th August. I was keen to check on Sumara which was moored in Inverness, but all the sleeper train tickets were sold out. The trains on Monday were all cancelled, although Trainline declined to tell me that, so…
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An Arctic Walk along the Thames?
19th July 2026 Reading Time: 20 minutes I recently organized a short walk alongside the Thames for members of the Arctic Club. It was a wet day with an amber weather warning for thunderstorms. We stopped at various places where I endeavored to find as many Arctic links as possible, some of which were rather…
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New Vertue Spotted – Merikala
9th July 2025 Reading time: One minute This was a stealth Vertue 2 with no visible name anywhere but if the owner was hoping to remain under the radar then he is out of luck because I am about to blow his cover. The owner is nice chap called Paul and the boat’s name is…
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Whitby to Inverness. Scoresby Sund Expedition. Leg Two.
24th June – 8th July 2025 Reading time: Oh dear, it’s rather long! Whitby to Blyth via Runswick Bay – 51 nm Grit and I had just attended a funeral in Market Drayton and had to leave the wake a bit early to meet up with Ray who was already waiting on the boat moored…
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Walton on the Naze to Whitby – Gently kicking off the Greenland Expedition. Leg One.
June 2025 Reading Time: 15 minutes This is the first leg of the “expedition” to Greenland. We had taken Sumara for a little test sail to Pin Mill on the River Orwell a couple of weeks earlier and managed to cover the entire boat, the dinghy and the dog in East Coast mud. Nevertheless, everything…
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Do you need a Big Boat to make a Ocean Passage?
May 2025 Reading Time: 20 minutes Category: Sailing in General The vast expanse of the ocean calls for a certain adventurous spirit, but does that call also necessitate a behemoth of a boat? The average length of a boat in this years Atlantic Rally for Cruisers was 48 foot. Yachts need to be over 27…
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A Little Walk from Chilham to Dover along the North Downs Way
28th – 30th March Category: Long Distance Walks Reading time: 10 minutes Although arranged in a bit of a hurry and with scant planning, this proved to be a very pleasant long distance walk. I like to plan to go on a long walk just before BST kicks in, everywhere is quiet and it is…
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Bigger is not always better – tools not boats
2nd April 2025 ..and I am not talking about boats this time, but just tools. Extractors. I made the mistake of buying a large Festool extractor. I forget the exact model but let’s call it the Maxi. It was a long time ago, but I remember my reasoning. There was a smaller “Midi” version, but…
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Heating on a Small Boat
17th March 2025 Reading Time: Ten Minutes When my boat was based primarily on the south coast of England, and, given that my sailing was mainly over the summer, the need for heating was very low down the priority list. On the rare occasions that I was sailing in the winter, my survival method was…
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Steyning Stinger – Half Marathon – 2025
9th March 2025 Reading Time: Two Minutes I know, another boring running post. The problem is that I started posting about this wonderful run in 2014 and it would seem weird to stop now. It also becomes a tiny little bit interesting now that the data accumulates as it shows how much you slow down…