Welcome Aboard! •
Welkom Aan Boord! •
¡Bienvenido Abordo!
We all arrive in this world with a certain level of curiosity, and that curiosity will be directed according to an individual’s own particular character or bent. The art in teaching children is to stoke their curiosity. As anybody who has ever had charge of a capricious wood-stove will know, if one is clumsy or over-enthusiastic and dumps too much wood onto the flames then they can easily be stifled; but, on the other hand, if one kindles the fire…
From time to time we get e-mails from people who are excited to hear about our very informal home-schooling method but who want to know, “What happened next?” The last time I wrote on this subject Caesar and Xoë were struggling with their A-levels. But that was four years ago! Did they pass the exams? Did they qualify for university? And what are they doing now? How does an utterly un-schooled child fare when the time comes from him to…
In a small, isolated village in southern Brazil, the long, hot day is finally ending. From our yacht, anchored out in the river, we watch the sun sink slowly into the mangroves, lighting up the clouds like tufts of pink candy-floss, and streaking the water with rainbow colours as though it had been mixed with oil. The characteristic sounds of the Brazilian daytime – motorbikes, the shrill screaming of cicadas, and the sound of Roberto Carlos’ latest hit being played…
One thing which doesn't interrupt my thoughts, as I stand in meditation on the foredeck, is the quacking and whistling of waterbirds - and that's because there are surprisingly few in this vicinity. The Rio Luján and our quiet little creek are very polluted. Having passed through hundreds of miles of farmland and through cities with every form of industry from leather tanning to nuclear power generation, the river is choked with heavy metals and poly-poisons and also with an…
Life alongside the riverbank allows us an entirely different perspective on Mother Nature, for whereas at sea we are surrounded by her majesty but catch only glimpses of our fellow beings, here, amongst the trees, everything is much more cosy and the environment is thronged with life. When we visited this creek in the summer the trees were alive with insects, many of whom were as sociable as their compatriot, two-legged Argentinians. Wasps of various kinds came aboard and made…
The Argentinians are very friendly people. For example, the other day, while Nick was buying wood and struggling to lash it to his bicycle, a complete stranger asked if he would like to put it in her car, instead. She didn’t mind the fact that she would have to go out of her way to take it to our dinghy. And just yesterday, while we were shopping, another woman approached us and asked if we would like to borrow her…
It’s the middle of winter. The days are short and the nights are long; sometimes it seems as if the sun has scarcely risen before he is sliding back down and is once more entangled amongst the cold, naked trees. At daybreak the river is shrouded by a skein of fog, like wet wool, and heavy droplets of water rain from the rigging, hitting the deck above my head with the sharp tap of falling nails. But there’s seldom a…
It’s finally happened! First there was the delay in finishing the illustrations – of which there are more than 100. Then there was the delay with the final editing. And then there was the delay with the final final editing… After that came the delay over where to send the proofs (bearing in mind that we’re on the move), and when the proofs came there was a delay when we found that the photos were not up to scratch. Delays,…
The first extruded aluminium mast was made in 1953, in England. Throughout the preceding centuries masts were made of wood or, latterly, of steel; and yet nowadays a wooden mast is considered suitable only for a traditional, gaff-rigged anachronism, and as for steel… Why would anybody build their masts of steel? Then again – why wouldn’t they?
Someone wrote to the website recently complaining that I write too much. More photos is what you need, he said! Inspired by this sentiment we’ve decided to make this month’s article a pictorial tribute to Brazil.