The Caribbean. To the land-dweller, cocooned in his bricks and mortar, the name probably means a brief escape. It conjures up images of white beaches lined with coconut palms and lapped by turquoise waters. Honeymoon couples come here, breaking out of their old routine like butterflies released into a new but very brief life of colour and freedom. Traversing the sky at impossible height and speed, they enjoy a fortnight in paradise. And then they hop back into the jumbo,…
Eighteen years ago, when the dot-com officer was still wearing nappies and the Ship’s Scholar was barely a bulge in the Admiral’s waistline, the good ship Maamari (predecessor to Mollymawk) was lying at anchor in the island of Antigua. To be precise, Maamari was lying in English Harbour, and in the absolute poll position at the head of the harbour; fifty-odd yards from the dockyard and fifty from the Slipway. The Antigua Slipway boatyard was where the Captain of our…
Hillsborough, Carriacou Bill Patterson was sitting with his friends in the front of his high street shop. From the wooden ceiling above his head two dozen T shirts, in assorted sizes and colours, hung down like curtains of weed in a grotto, but the shelves which lined the walls of the little den were stocked with tins of peas and milk powder and suchlike. Meanwhile, the tired old counter at the back of the store carried a display of batteries,…
Back in ye olde days His Majesty’s Royal Navy used to experience a little bit of difficulty in recruiting sailors. Small wonder since the food was awful, the discipline was unbelievably severe, and the accommodation smelly, dirty and very cramped. There being few volunteers to live a life more dire than that of a convict, the navy took to grabbing men out of the fields and inns and even out of their homes. Needless to say, this workforce was not…
For the past twenty years now we’ve been on our way south to Patagonia. Well we’re still on our way – make no mistake about that – but we’ve slotted in another little detour. (Yes, another one…) Heading south we will commit ourselves to a journey into the Pacific – a journey lasting thousands of miles and several years. We’re more than ready for the adventure, but at the same time we felt that there was one other thing we…
These notes cover the following anchorages – click the name to jump to the relevant section. Santa Cruz de Tenerife Montaña Roja Las Galletas Los Cristianos
These notes cover the following anchorages – click the name to jump to the relevant section. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Máspalomas et alia Arguineguín Cement Factory Bay (Bahía de Santa Agueda) Puerto Mogán
A one-time fishing village on the northern end of Fuerteventura, Corralejo is now a busy little tourist trap, with scores of restaurants, a street full of shops selling ticky-tacky, and a small fleet of glass-bottomed boats and charter yachts. It is also the port for the ferries which run between Fuerteventura and its sister island, Lanzarote. This makes it easy for an approaching vessel to find the place: you just follow the big boats! Although it is easy to find,…
The island of La Graciosa sits at the northern end of Lanzarote and is divided from the mother island by a narrow channel, or “rio” (as the locals term it). The high cliffs off Lanzarote seem almost to overhang the islet and they have a tremendous influence over the weather down here. When the wind is in the south they cause mighty gusts, or williwaws, to go hurtling down onto the channel. At such times, the anchorage on the southern…
Oilies have come a long way since I was a kid. Way back then, we wore either heavy-duty canvas smocks or stiff, plastic-coated cotton ones. I guess the plastic-coated cloth must have been the hip new thing. Next to come along were thin nylon jackets more suited to trekking in a light drizzle than to fending off buckets of seawater, but the quality of these garments rapidly improved – the nylon cloth became thicker and more waterproof, and the design…
