Jill started sailing at the age of three weeks and spent her formative years messing about in racing dinghies in Chichester Harbour. She made her first blue-water passage at the age of 18 but it was to be a further ten years before she was shanghaied by the skipper and started her career as an ocean-going hobo.
Jill has written a handful of books and has many more in the pipeline, but her true vocation is as an artist.
We’ve all been so frantically busy, these past few months, that the Mollymawk website has been rather neglected – and since the pressure is still on, this update will be brief. Caesar and Xoë have still got their noses to the grindstone, as they study hard for their A levels. This puts the rest of the crew under a lot of pressure too, as it means that there are only three of us to do all of the chores. Most…
Whether through the fault of man or because of natural changes in the climate, the Spanish region of Murcia has for hundreds of years been an arid one. Some say that anciently this was a lush, forested place but that Bronze Age man felled the trees to make way for his own choice of vegetation. This led to a decrease in rainfall. Regardless of whether he was to blame, having entered upon the scene and set up camp, man had…
What do you picture when you think of Spain? Sunshine sparkling on a blue sea. Sandy beaches fringed by a never-ending border of hideous apartment blocks. Red wine; orange groves; bull rings; flamenco dancers… If you have visited the interior you will also picture villages nestling on rocky outcrops, and mountain ranges fading into the blue. If you have come here for the skiing you might picture crisp white slopes – or, then again, you might picture brown ones, on…
WHY TEST YOUR LIFEJACKET ? The majority of yachtsmen never, ever use their lifejackets. They may wear them on deck but most are careful enough – or lucky enough – never to fall in, and most are blasé enough – or careless enough – never to get round to trying them out in the water. This makes no sense. How many times have you bought something – a camera, perhaps, or a tool, or a cooking utensil – and found…
When she finished the last instalment of her GCSE exams in June 2007, Xoë was almost in tears. She couldn’t wait for us to sort out the materials for the next lap of her education – her A levels.
Antifoul has always been a hot topic aboard Mollymawk. We have always been troubled by the knowledge that conventional antifouling paints are expensive, highly toxic and, to a large extent, ineffective. Eight years have passed since we last slipped the boat and slapped on a coat of something nasty. In the intervening years we have kept a listening watch, hoping to hear of some new discovery which will solve our worries. Surely, there must be something which is bad for…
Today the ship’s dog finally took the plunge. All summer long she has been making a nuisance of herself, barking madly and snapping at the heels of anyone who jumps or dives from the side-deck – so we decided that it was high time she joined in the fun.
Here are the answers to our recent, devious quiz.
The advantages of homeschooling are so many that they would fill a book. The disadvantages number just two. The first disadvantage is the problem of finding enough other kids to form a football team or the cast of a play... The second is the difficulty of studying for GCSEs and A levels. For our experiences in this latter arena, read on.
Our last quiz proved to be a bit too taxing for all but the experts. So we have made this one… different.