Sailing
My sailing career began when I was 13 and I joined the newly formed Maidstone Grammar School sailing club to learn on both Enterprises and Moth dinghies. My original interest had been stirred by Arthur Ransome, of course. In fact, I'd say he taught me sailing just through my reading of his books. After a long time sailing dinghies, the 'breakthrough' came 23 years ago when I was introduced to yachting through a friend's family. My very first experience of yachting was sailing off a mooring in Keyhaven and beating down to Studland Bay in Dorset, where we overnighted. I wonder how many thousands have made a similar short voyage to this entirely new realm?
Rapidly identifying this as another part of my slowly dawning understanding of the great big outdoors and my crucial place in it, I enrolled on a series of RYA courses run from the old Merchant Navy School in Stamford Street, south London. Combining the winter theory with spring and summer practicals around the UK and the Channel Islands, it all came to fruition in a first flotilla holiday in Greece, with the then Yacht Cruising Association. After years of jilling about in this yacht and that, in 1988 I signed an agreement with Tracy Edwards to write about her successful attempt to skipper the first all-women crew in a Whitbread Round the World Race. Maiden (see the author page on this site) subsequently proved to be an international best-seller.
In the past decade I have sailed across the Atlantic (with Laura), in and around South America, Australia and New Zealand - and all round the coasts of Europe. It has been a miracle that I am now with someone who, if anything, loves sailing at least as much as me, my wife, Laura. We actually spend our honeymoon on a 40-foot Dufour in Corsica (see top picture). And so the world trip draws ever nearer…