In Summer 2011 Paul and family spent a couple of weeks cruising the West Country in their Ovni yacht "Little Wing". Determined to make the most of the lift keel and shallow draft, they spent much time gunkholing as far as they could go up each harbour and river, getting to places inaccessible to most 40ft yachts. In Summer 2012 they returned, this time on passage to the Isles of Scilly.
Once again, the design of the Ovni proved ideal for exploring these amazing islands, letting them safely navigate the tricky routes, shallow depths and frequent rocks.
"It’s a cook’s dilemma not to overprovision and have perishable things wasted, or get to the stage where there is not much variety left.” says Julia in her diary of a boat cook. When John Simpson stood up at a CA Crewing Service meeting to ask for volunteers to join him on the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, Julia jumped at the chance.
Starting from Lesbos, a five month journey through the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus to Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, North Turkey and to Georgia. Highlights were gentility in the Sea of Marmara, crazy officialdom in Istanbul, three transits of the swirling Bosphorus (twice single-handed) and the emptiness of the Black Sea (enlivened by the coastguard boats coming to check papers). Less entrancing was paperwork in Yalta and thunderstorms in N Turkey. The land of the Golden Fleece?
What sort of nerds write pilot books? Looking back on writing books for the Med (and other places) Rod Heikell feels a bit of nostalgia for those nearly forgotten skills of pilotage, seamanship, and the joy of sailing. With no GPS or computer aided design, things were a little different from today. Surprisingly some things remain the same, but fortunately you don't get arrested for drawing a harbour plan or taking photos of them any more.
New Members Evening, 13th February, 18.30-21.30, CA House
Recently joined the CA? Join us for our bi-annual new members evening! If you haven’t yet been to CA House, this is your chance to come and enjoy an evening with us, get a real taste of what being part of the CA is all about, take a guided tour of CA House, see our library and information centre, cabin accommodation and where the Secretariat is based, plus meet lots of current CA members. There will also be a talk from Jim Bacon at 7pm on Cruising Weather for you to enjoy.
Extreme Voyagers 2: the Next Generation, by Jeremy Batch
Any toddler who waved a flag at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant (Spithead, 1897) would have learned at school about the Wright brothers’ first flight only six years later. He would also, if he just exceeded his “threescore years and ten”, have watched men walk on the Moon.
