For almost a century, gangs of men called Muddies sailed Thames barges to the remote salt marshes of the Medway estuary, to dig tons of mud to satisfy the relentless demands of the cement industry. They worked hard, drank hard, got into fights, and changed the tidal flow of a river, forever. An entertaining journey through an almost forgotten piece of unique history.
Nine years ago, Paul Eedle became obsessed with owning a historic wooden boat even though he could hardly sail. He found his 1907 Looe lugger Guiding Star so rewarding despite the challenges that he asked a shipwright friend in Cornwall to design and build him a new wooden boat. Hopeful, a 30’ gaff ketch, was launched this summer. Paul tells the story of two boats which transported him to a new world.
Birds do it, bees do it, even educated salmon do it – and all with a precision that we have only just begun to match. The contributions to navigation made by Galileo and John Harrison are well-known, and the work of others – such as Michael Faraday and Elmer Sperry – can at least be guessed at. But what about Igor Sikorsky, Arthur C. Clarke and Albert Einstein? If the back-staff was such an improvement over the cross-staff, why did the Dutch East India Company ban it from their ships?
Ian Herbert Jones has recently returned from both the Ocean Globe Race and the Golden Globe Race. In this talk, he describes his Golden Globe journey for which he used a unique blend of traditional navigation and cutting edge satellite technology that ultimately saved his life. Ian blends his passion for adventure sailing with a long career in the tech industry. With more than 100,000 sea miles experience, he has completed what he describes as 2.75 circumnavigations under sail.
In a field in land-locked Armenia, there lies a full-scale replica of a 13th century merchant ship. She was modelled from a time when the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia had a coastline and a mercantile fleet. Amazingly, the project was conceived when Armenia was part of the Soviet Union and built in a time of turmoil and war. When Armenia found itself a free country, the ship was transported to the Black Sea and launched.
Cruising editor Camilla Herrmann and her husband Sam Brown always wanted to sail around Britain in their Westerly Storm Kalessin of Orwell, but after Sam suffered a stroke in 2012 which left him seriously disabled and with limited speech, it really wasn’t a practicable option. They continued to sail gently, with crew, in the waters of the East Coast, the Netherlands and France.
Like taxes, growing old is inevitable! For some it may mean giving up sailing while others, like Gilbert, find a way of dealing with the changes associated with ageing so they can continue to enjoy a life with boats. Gilbert has been sailing for nearly 50 years and the first adaptation he made was moving from sail to power. No more aching hands from cold, wet ropes. Once this jump was made he found ways to make time on the water even more safe and enjoyable.
Julia, an executive coach, non-executive director and former CA Council member, has recently completed her first transatlantic sail on a 42-foot sailing boat with her husband, Rupert Wainwright, as co-skipper and their friend, Lawrence, as crew.
It seems to me that I have been like a shuttlecock bandied to and fro by lunatics. I seem to have lived not one life but snatches from a dozen different lives. (Arthur Ransome’s Autobiography)
