Braced against the rolling of the boat, I sipped scalding tea from the mug cradled in my cold hands and watched the misty blue hills of Scotland materialise ahead. Wandering…
Cruising life
Buying a boat ready for the Mediterranean: Retiring and finding maximum comfort
Our dream of buying a boat and cruising the Mediterranean could finally become reality. Now we just needed to turn fantasy into fact. Our new boat needed to be a…
East Coast Cruising: New York sightseeing by sea
Flying alone, I was due to meet our friends Janet and Richard in Rhode Island for east coast cruising, as our proposed UK crew had cancelled at short notice. Given…
A Hebridean Swallows and Amazons experience
When I was age 12 , we went on a family holiday on the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides off Scotland’s west coast. I was pottering around the…
Jeanneau SO 350 first look: Simplicity without stealing space
The Sun Odyssey 349 sold 2,500 hulls but after 12 years of service it was due for replacement. The new Jeanneau SO 350 answers the call. The 350 follows her…
A classic American cruise: Sailing from British Columbia to San Francisco
It felt great to be heading out to sea once more on a classic American cruise. The forecast was for an enjoyable sail to San Francisco over the next few…
‘We seemingly plunged off the edge of the world’: Experiencing freak waves
Salvage tug captain Nick Sloane can claim a library of feats of derring do amongst freak waves. He even salvaged the Costa Concordia, which was a wonder of engineering. If…
‘Rod had single-handedly raised the price of shellfish in the San Blas by about 300%’ – Lu Heikell
Can we agree that it’s an old myth that sailors survive entirely on Fray Bentos pies and ‘pot mess’? Certainly on Skylax mealtimes are something to look forward to as…
Sailing to Scotland: flitting north to a new home
Flitting is a traditional Scottish expression for moving house so our decision to move from Gosport to the island of Arran meant we needed a plan to ‘flit’ our Hanse…
‘The average age of this crew is 70 years old’ – Top tales from sailing across the Atlantic
People have been sailing across the Atlantic for centuries, following in the wake of Columbus in 1492, but there is still something about this navigation that quickens the pulse. It is a dream…