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.
It was on March 3rd that we finally left the marina. Not for the absolute, last time ever – because it’s the only safe place to leave the boat when we need to go into Cartagena – but for the last time as fee paying members of the La Manga community. We have relinquished the berth which was our home for the previous three years, and we won’t be going back to that lifestyle.
Forty years ago the Spanish were still claiming the western half of the Sahara and fighting to keep a hold of that territory. It was not to be – they lost the land – but the way things are going they need no longer feel aggrieved by the loss. The Sahara desert is now all set to hop across the Straits and occupy Southern Spain.
It’s February 1st… and we’re still stuck in La Manga. Those of you who know us well won’t be at all surprised at the delay, but everybody else keeps asking us, “Why…?”
Thank-you for having a go at our Mix ‘n Match Bird Quiz. The first completely correct entry came from Sue. Susie was on the right lines with the yellow-legged gull. John, you were so nearly right with everything that I suspect you simply pressed the wrong key a couple of times…!
The Ship’s Naturalist has been very busy these past few weeks. She has at least two articles in the pipeline, but transferring her observations from the Nature Diary to the computer is a long, slow process. In the meantime, we thought you might enjoy a little nature quiz.
Searching for a way to win back her figure and fitness, but without the expenditure of any unpleasant effort, Jill discovers canoeing. There is just one problem, and that is the matter of stowage. If you think a couple of canoes take up a lot of room in your garage, try fitting them onboard a yacht! Clearly, the answer lies in acquiring a pop-up version which, at the end of the day’s play, can be magicked away and hidden under…
How can you holiday and see the world on the cheap? Answer: as a backpacker. But how can you do that same thing with three kids and a dog in tow? That’s what the boat is all about. With a boat you can travel, in your own home, to the far corners of the globe. However, there are times when a boat can be very restrictive. You can travel the seven seas, but when it comes to terra firma you…
When you live on a cruising yacht the world is your oyster – but it’s an oyster which comes without any dressing. Liveaboard yotties, drifting about on the seven seas, have to do without many of the things that Westerners generally take for granted: there is no hot and cold running water out here – not aboard our boat, anyway – and there is no national grid to provide our electricity. We also do without television, the Daily Mail, postal…
Mollymawk is currently based in La Manga del Mar Menor, in Southern Spain. Cruising Notes for this region will eventually be posted… but the Log Book will not begin in earnest until we set off, again, into the wide blue yonder.