Five hours into our madcap race, we feared that we weren’t going to make it. We knew the odds were stacked against us, but we had no choice but to…
Cruising life
‘Crocodiles, sharks, box jellyfish, stonefish and sea-snakes’ – Sailing the northern Australian coast
The Kimberly Coast of Northern Australia has the largest tidal range in the southern hemisphere. In Derby, to the west of Darwin, the tidal range has registered as much as…
Sailing in the wake of the Vikings and attending the viking festival ‘Up Helly Aa’
There was no past. No future. Only right now. A moon spread its silver over the sea and the waves chased us along. We were on our way back to…
Cruising Guadeloupe: one couple explore a paradise teeming with natural wonders
The French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe is the most southerly of the Leeward Islands. Shaped like a butterfly, it is split into two halves, the wings forming Basse-Terre in the…
‘We spotted people in the water, fighting for their lives’
Under reefed mainsail and engine we were heading westwards, close to the rocky cliffs off the French south coast, east of Marseille. In the distance I saw something in the…
How to make your boat child-friendly
The idea of heading to sea with a child on board elicits different responses for different people, however far you’re going. A day sail with a boat full of noisy…
Decaying buildings left to be looted and destroyed by visitors
The quarantine officer wished us a hearty, ‘Welcome to ‘Straya!’ Clearance into Mackay on Australia’s Queensland Coast was straightforward except for the fiscal shock we received when he informed us…
Exploring Ireland’s wild Atlantic coast by boat
From a distance the Skellig Islands look like two shards of rock sticking out of the Atlantic. Skellig or Sceilg means ‘splinter of stone’. It was a calm, hot and…
Two sailors go coral gardening in French Polynesia
Floris is on the lookout at the bow, as we are sailing in uncharted waters. Some of the coral heads rise almost to the surface but, thanks to the high…
Why Lefkas remains one of Greece’s best islands
Lefkas island in the Ionian Sea is one of my favourite places in Greece. For land travellers it is one of the few islands easily reached by car and represents…