The sun was my constant. It was regular, beautiful, immense. I started asking for help. “Why are you testing me?” “When will you make it better for me?” “Why are you challenging me like this?”

It is clear that Tom is finding it challenging to make his way south to the latitude of Hiva Oa. In spite of the strong westerly-flowing current, the force of the south easterly trade winds is making it difficult to hold a course south of west.

The great irony of Thamas Tangvald’s life was that he could never see nor comprehend how negative his father's influence really was. What he never grasped was that his father was in fact an agent of tragedy.

The sheets were inch thick manilla or sisal rope and there were no winches or cleats, just solid belaying pins. The enormous tiller was controlled by a rope bridle. There was no shelter for the helmsman from heavy weather although luggers built in following years had a small wheelhouse.

Don’t expect character arcs, unresolved sexual tension or Chekov’s Gun, but do expect spine tingling accounts from the last great fleet of square-rigged sailing ships the world would ever see, and extraordinary imagery to match.

Five weeks after leaving Lima, Tom passed the 1,000 nautical mile mark on Sunday 7 August. He is now nearly a third of the way through his first leg with around 2600 nm of, hopefully, plain rowing to go before he reaches the Marquesas.

MAIWAR is fully loaded with enough food and water, spares and supplies to last me the five months. Her diminutive size means that for the first few weeks I’ll be sharing my bunk with my onboard pantry, I’ll by eating my way into more comfortable accomodation.

It seems to me that wooden boat owners, perhaps more than others seem to understand that rushing is not always good, and that good preparation provides rewards that aren’t available to those who stick to the shiny marinas springing up around our coasts.

“My goal is, first and foremost, to become the youngest person to row across the Pacific Ocean.”

With a small sum of money collected by the sale of his belongings and contributions from his family, Speck set off from Hamburg on 13 May 1932, when Hitler was almost unknown. Armed with a kayak, two paddles, a camera, film, clothing, a pistol, he paddled down the Danube towards the Mediterranean.

Lone sailor Bernard Gilboy’s small boat voyage, in 1882, was perhaps the most daring undertaking on the world’s biggest ocean. Yet, when departing San Francisco, the Customs Certificate read, “starts on a voyage of pleasure for Australia.”

When Charles Carruthers accepts an invitation for a yachting and duck-shooting trip to the Frisian Islands from Arthur Davies, an old chum from his Oxford days, he has no idea their holiday will become a daredevil investigation into a German plot to invade Britain.

The Wharram Catamaran has always held a fascination not because its a thing of beauty but because they reek of the promise of adventure. And not a modern day adventure clutching a GPS and Sat Phone, but a 1960’s hippy adventure with free love, tropical islands bare tanned skin, and the rejection of boundaries imposed by a disapproving society.

Anyone who thought the world had four oceans will now have to think again, after the National Geographic Society announced it would recognise a new Southern Ocean in Antarctica, bringing the global total to five.

What makes it different to the previous six books in this column is that it’s an adventure brought on by necessity rather than free choice.  It’s a story that is playing out in some form or another every day of the year in 2021, whether it be in the Mediterranean, the Indian ocean or the Caribbean. Normal people, whose mere existence is under threat, take to a small boat, to escape to a new life. 

Grace’s Guide to British Industry says that Arthur Beale was established as a rope maker called John Buckinghams circa 1500. Our Sign says “Established 400 years” but the sign is 60 years old!

Quick trivia question : Name three yachts that arrived off Battery Point, at the end of the Sydney-Hobart, believing they were line honours winners, only to be denied by the protest committee?

I watched the dramatic events unfold in the early stages of the Prada Cup last weekend. I must admit that subconsciously I was hoping to dislike the whole event.

“I knew there were already plans to electrify the lights. To automate. To relegate man beneath machines. To make us redundant. To take all the purpose out of life. As if richness did not lie in purpose and meaning but in leisure. I was keenly aware that I was in love with a dying life.”

PODCAST ONE - In this our very first podcast we speak with ANT PERRI, BOAT COOK EXTRAORDINAIRE! Get a pen and paper to jot down his tips and tricks.