Sailing around Britain in memory of Sam, Camilla Herrmann

Cruising editor Camilla Herrmann and her husband Sam Brown always wanted to sail around Britain in their Westerly Storm Kalessin of Orwell, but after Sam suffered a stroke in 2012 which left him seriously disabled and with limited speech, it really wasn’t a practicable option. They continued to sail gently, with crew, in the waters of the East Coast, the Netherlands and France. In 2023 Sam died, and Camilla decided to devote the summer of 2024 to sailing anti-clockwise around (most of) Britain in his memory. She describes finding and sailing with crew; the challenges of dealing with bumpy waters, unknown harbours, anchoring and reefing, after years of undemanding marina-hopping; encountering Scotland’s worst summer in many years... and returning home (by train) to edit this issue of Cruising. Once it had gone to press, Camilla was due to set off through the Irish Sea towards the English Channel, and she will report on whether the voyage was completed successfully.

Please note: lectures can be watched live online but we do not generally make recordings available after the event, for a number of reasons relating to time and copyright issues.