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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…
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Deal Half Marathon – 2025
16th February 2025 You may be wondering what half marathons have to got do with sailing. I first started running as part of my training to climb Beerenberg, the world’s most northerly volcano. I had been caught out a few years earlier when I joined a group of friends skiing the Haute Route. I soon…
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Scoresby Sund 2026 – it’s on!
30th January 2025 Reading time: 5 minutes I am going to have just one more attempt to get to Scoresby Sund in my little 26 foot wooden yacht. This time will be my 4th try and it will definitely my last attempt! Before committing to the expedition I needed to secure a seafaring crew for…