As each year rolls over into the next, the numbers of small craft, fibre glass boats on the whole, abandoned by owners has grown steadily. Old wooden boats get abandoned too, however, these, in time, will break down and in any case, as a last resort an owner can ‘safely’ burn.

I wrote an article about this problem in a magazine, now long out of print, back in 2010. It was published in Anglia Afloat in the May/June 2011 issue.

At that time I had not seen anything in the press about the growing problem that was clearly there to be seen, however, over the past decade it has become a hottish issue with even the BBC getting in on the act. See inside one of the two web blog links below.

Ditch-crawler looks again at ‘dead ships’…

Walking the sea wall from Maldon to Heybridge Basin this weekend I photographed the head of Heybridge Creek (River Blackwater) where there is a plethora of dumped craft – wooden on the whole – and running round to Herring Point there were a couple of abandoned fibreglass yachts and what appeared to be an old plywood cruiser. In the back channel two old sailormen idly rust and rot away…

There have been trials with chopping fibreglass up and reusing it – this was not very successful. Another trial was trialing chopping up the glass and fibres and ‘extracting them’ for reuse. This seemed to be working small scale – upscaling hasn’t as far as I know hit the sector yet…

Meanwhile around the world, for this is a global phenomenon, authorities are becoming agitated…

A Woodbridge boatyard has for years been into the brokerage of small cruising vessels – of the type most brokers wouldn’t even look at. The yard can be found by the rail station!

Now, a boat breakers based in Gosport, have begun a service where they match people with abandoned projects. The company has been disposing of craft for nearly twenty years it says and they have had some success in these endeavours.

Whilst I applaud the Gosport company, I would ask: what is the success rate of a match? However, they’re doing something – similar in my view to the Woodbridge enterprise.

See: https://www.andyseedhouseboats.co.uk

I have also written about this yard too…

Ditch-crawler views a few Thames derelicts…

One thing is certain, it will not be long before some form of legislation comes into the arena – it will affect us all.

Titchmarsh Marina Yard has for a while now been clearing their yard of abandoned craft. All fittings are removed – wooden boats are cut up for burning and fibreglass vessels are cut into pieces and go off into landfill…

Other yards are active in these endeavours too. Yacht clubs will need to step up and do likewise!

The operators of my new home berth have announced in their regular news letter that unclaimed dinghies will be disposed of and a process is being put into place to remove the craft of non-payers (mooring fees). Some of these craft have clearly loitered for some time. One appears in my article!

Recent article from Marine Industry News:

Lonely Boats service hooks up ‘neglected’ projects with DIYers

Along the sea wall near Heybridge Basin sits a big old wooden smack, the Telegraph. She has languished for years on the river – firstly for a couple of decades along the promenade at Maldon and more recently in a mud berth from which she ay never leave down stream.

The vessel is subject to possible ‘enforced’ sale but the owner as far as I am aware is not ‘playing’ – apparently there was (is) a buyer. This is a common problem. The UK Ships Heritage organisation is aware, but they are powerless.

Looking at the Telegraph this weekend, it was clear that her hull is out of shape with a hogged deck line especially to starboard and it was apparent that she does not often lift in her berth judging by hull/mud lines…

A few days into the New Year and an email tumbled from my letter box from a reader of my latest book, Sailing through life…

The chap and his wife have been in regular contact over the past decade or so and upon the sad death from cancer of a sister, they had donated her collection of my works to a prestigious London Yacht Club they belonged to – the Little Ship Club.

I remember meeting the lady not long before her death for Richard had asked for a couple of books and on a research trip to Kent (for Rochester to Richmond) we detoured to their home. Richard’s wife’s family were part of the ‘Parker’ clan of Bradwell – farmers and barge owners, May Flower and Veronica included.

Richard’s sister was being read ‘Salt Marsh & Mud’ by the couple during her lucid ‘well’ periods… That in itself left me rather choked. It was a reminder of childhood and adult sailing times in the waters of the Lower Thames, Medway and Swale waterways.

However, their words humbled me. It was tinged with much gratitude too at their taking the trouble to actually say something…

This is the content:

‘Hi Nick,
Firstly, a very Happy and Healthy New Year to you and Christobel.

I’ve just finished reading your latest book that you kindly posted to me before Christmas. Personally, I think it is the best of all your great works and was a real page turner.

The advice that you give about prostate cancer and regular checks – I have my annual blood test for it on the 18th -is so important and I just hope that your readers take proper notice and follow up with their own checks.

As you might imagine, both Sue and I greatly miss Greenwitch and the east coast and so your writings take on an even greater value to us both as our sailing life recedes further into the past.

The wonderful thing about all your books is their ability to be read and re-read again and again without losing any of their charm. In that sense, they compare very much with Maurice Griffith, H. Alker Tripp and, of course, the great Frank Cowper.

We both send to the two of you our very best wishes and our heartfelt hope that you now remain fit and well.
With best regards,
Richard & Sue‘

Richard and Sue have with much sadness sold their beloved Cornish Cutter (30′) Greenwitch and hung up their sailing boots. Age and health issues caught up with them, as it will us all, but they live the life through their enjoyment of sailing and coastal literature.

Thank you seems not to be enough, but it is the simplest and most heartfelt…

Austin Macauley YouTube clip for book:

Books are available online, at book shops and through me…

I, of course, will sign and message as requested.

At the beginning of 2023, although the mate and I were unhappy with the way the Island Yacht Club on Canvey Island were treating our ‘boy’ and that we have never forgiven the club at the way we had been treated over a ‘problem’ in 2019, we weren’t about to cast off and sail away permanently…

We were keeping a low profile whilst continuing as club volunteers with a continuous need for mooring repairs.

We had a major ‘fortieth’ year refit planned for Whimbrel during the spring. it being forty years since the boat was ordered. I also had an impending new knee operation and an unknown was how long I would need to recuperate. It was going to be tight, possibly.

The year began with a refit for the main companionway hatch. This was written about at the time.

As always, we fitted our lives around the joys of walking and sailing, plus our weekly Saturday club work party. Little did we know, this latter ‘joy’ was nearing an abrupt end.

At the beginning of March, my youngest brother jumped at the chance to come sailing – something that has become almost a rite of passage over the past few years. Two nights were bagged in fine weather. We made it to Queenborough and to Upnor, enjoying great sailing.

During the spring I was reminded of the honour ‘bestowed’ upon me by Yachting Monthly the previous year. I was, in their opinion, one of twenty-five people who’d furthered yachting around the UK and beyond. It came up in conversation at a work party – few knew and even less cared, apart from the enquirer!

The Island Yacht Club themselves, although told at the time, followed the award up with complete silence…

See:

Ditch-crawler is honoured by Yachting Monthly…

Our faces had never fitted. An old hand took me aside years ago and suggested we got out – as he himself did not so long afterwards (based at Brightlingsea now) If not in with a certain corp, then you were a nothing. We were generally happy with that situation, as are the majority of club members around and about.

My knee op was looming and it wasn’t long before I was under the knife…

I wasn’t out of action for long and with the exercises and day by day longer walks was up to five kilometres at the fifth week of convalescence. At that point, we booked a date for Whimbrel to be lifted out.

It was a little under eight weeks after my knee op that the boat was set on chocks ashore. During the work period – just four weeks – I had a bout of trouble with blood pressure medication caused by my GP Practice.

Further, we had problems with club members treating the compound as a race track with resultant dust clouds coating boat with fresh coatings taking place. Signs did nothing. Finally, I made an official complaint, verbally at first then formally in writing. That caused a stir… Old wounds were opened and vengeance against us was sniffed (and, privately, alluded to).

Our 2019 RIB perpetrators were now the head honchos of the club…

The problems caused me angst and my disturbed sleepless nights returned – these began after the 2019 RIB bombing and then being bullied (cowered) into ‘shutting up’ about it all … during my cancer treatment…

There are some ‘nice’ people at the Island Yacht Club.

See:

Island Yacht Club: forty years a member – forced out. Ditch-crawler reflects…

So, with my sister and two friends aboard (for their week of sailing) Whimbrel departed the Island Yacht Club for good.

As we left, I had just one look back down the line of creek buoys – buoys that I had looked after for fifteen years overseeing upgrade from painted drums to proper pucker floats… Never mind the estimated £100, 000 of Saturday work hours freely given. Now, it seems: for what!

Within a week of sailing away, my mind cleared and I was freed to sleep almost normally. It was magical. A leaden sinker miraculously became buoyant and the trauma suffered with the RIB attack and its aftermath floated free and drifted away on the tide…

One of my biggest regrets is the ‘joy’ I put into my writing about Smallgains Creek and our club mooring: they feature throughout all my estuary books. I don’t read back through them and probably never will.

Will I write about Whimbrel’s forty years at the Island Yacht Club sometime, maybe … maybe from another base, maybe!

Having booked a permanent berth at The Blackwater Marina before departing the Thames, we visited, as we oft had over the years, for a stopover. In fact we came in several times during the summer – for the last two visits the manager refused to charge us as we were about to pay our berthing charge. She said, it was ours in any case!

Very kind…

On one visit with a flat calm, we motored past all the creek navigation buoys and marked them on the satnav whilst noting numbers/names. Later I inputted the details. Useful: however, they’re treated as a guide now for Whimbrel has found her liking for these waters…

It should be remembered that Lawling and Mayland Creek have been thoroughly explored by dinghy as well as on Whimbrel over many years and has been written about (Yachting Monthly and in my books).

During our time up on the Backwaters, Stour and Orwell, we popped into Suffolk Yacht Harbour to meet up with a cousin, a son of my mother’s brother, who had had a passion for sailing but never had a large boat. Retired, he has taken the plunge.

Their daughter, up on the boat’s deck, had sailed the Round Ireland Race recently and with her skipper won their class… The boat was sailed up to Inverness with a skipper aboard, then by family with friends down the Caledonian to the West Coast and down to Tarbert transiting the Crinan… My cousin is promising me a sail from Tarbert next year!

We had an interesting departure from Titchmarsh during August: Christobel had a ‘whoopsie’…

Briefly: The boat was all prepared for departure with sails ready to hoist – we were going to sail out.

As Whimbrel began going astern out of berth, Christobel stepped onto deck edge, late, forward of shrouds, slipped and ended up hanging down side of boat from the top rail wire!

I had to manoeuvre further astern to get the turn back in, whereupon a couple of helpers took her. She got wet, finally…

The episode and changing lasted ten minutes, and we sailed out cleanly at second attempt!

While berthed at Halfpenny Pier at Harwich, a large forty-foot boat struck Whimbrel’s port bow a glancing blow. A stanchion base was deformed. However, later when looking closely, the deck edge had been stressed too.

We wandered up into Colchester’s Hythe using the city authorities conveniently placed pontoon for a couple nights. It is a lovely spot if mud isn’t a problem to you. The creek bed provides a feeding ground for much intermixed bird life – waders competing with many types.

The Wivenhoe SC played hast to us a couple of times, once with a fellow Finesse 24, Windsong. It was after that visit we attended a small rally of our class at Brightlingsea…

The summer dawdled on, we took life easy in all respects for I was being very careful with my new knee!

There were days when we sat at a mooring or at anchor just allowing life to carry on around. There was much reading enjoyed by both…

The latter part of the summer was spent dawdling up to Maldon and around the Blackwater to West Mersea. It was blissful. Then, the summer had to end!

Moving into early autumn, we had an enjoyable balmy weekend away to see the Colne Barge and Smack matches – something I had never experienced, then a cousin and my youngest brother spent a cracking weekend aboard, taking in West Mersea and Brightlingsea with a wonderful romp home up the Blackwater.

When stowing our gear, with the two boys, I dropped our weekend egg supply! They fell into the fore cabin bilge which made interesting cleaning, clearing the ‘white’ especially from under the ribs!!

After the trip with the two boys, the dinghy was stowed on its trolley and ‘berthed’ in the marina storage area, where in time, much varnish work was stripped back and coats built up. The oars, rudder, and dagger board were serviced at home. Finally the inside was repainted … ready for the new season.

During the autumn we got out as the weather (and space) allowed, getting away under sail, and, on a sultry afternoon, I sailed back into the berth single handed too…

During the middle of the autumn, my latest book, ‘Sailing through life…’ finally came out.

See:

On our jaunts out on the boat and further walking exercises round the borders of Lawling and Mayland creeks, it became obvious that the area was a hotbed of overwintering birds. Many species of duck and of course the ubiquitous Brent goose!

Huge swirls of dunlin, knot and other waders (usually mixed up) have regularly been witnessed while sailing in the creek.

One thing was sure, I wasn’t missing out on the spectacles oft seen down off the end of Canvey Island. (A place I now rarely have the need to go…)

So, how do we feel in our new home?

Happy. At peace. No stress. No hassles. No bullying or the threats of. Manager remarked that she’d suffered workplace bullying and in its unlikely occurrence, to report immediately…

Yes, we miss the chaps we worked with on the work parties, but the rest of the rot, not one jot.

We’ve still to ‘test’ the yard hard for our spring bottom refit (antifouling), but the manager has assured us it should all be to our satisfaction.

We feel blessed with our lot.

Back in 2010 in the introduction to, ‘Mudlarking – Thames Estuary Cruising Yarns‘, published by Amberley, I wrote:

‘The pleasures of an arrival in a creek fringed with saline plants, with their heady scents of summer, are enough for this sailor and his mate. The sight of traditional craft, smacks, old wooden yachts, classics or otherwise, or the ubiquitous, evocative spritsail barge adds immensely to the aura: to fetch up with any of these, in the same anchorage, adds timelessness…‘

Well, we are now berthed within ‘that paradise’ – I should have moved us three years ago, we realise this now…

Finally, Whimbrel and her crew would like to wish all readers a very happy New Year and a peaceful coexistence with those around you.

Calor’s crazy decision of a couple years back now caused more than a stir in the boating circles, but it was in the caravan and motorhome world that the storm of dissent was loudest, and, earliest onto the block.

I tried my luck with the traditional boating press to no avail before getting the South Coast sailing news to do a piece.

As for the Royal Yachting Association, they were initially non starters with seemingly little care, ignorant in their response to myself, until finally a ‘Calor’ statement was published by them last April – I had disposed of my forty plus year membership by then!

Royal Yachting Association – Ditch-crawler follows up on gas cylinder shortages…

So, as someone who had only one choice to make when supplies of the ‘small’ calor cylinders ceased, that was to change to the smaller and more expensive Campingaz, I have kept my ear to the ground.

Fortunately, we built up a bottle reserve and found a supplier who ‘never ran out’ of the 3.9/4.5 cylinder sizes.

Then from my friend in Aukland, New Zealand came a tip off…

A snippet of news on the East Coast Pilot site – not a place I visit often. So I went trawling towards the caravan brigade for they have been very proactive.

I found and interesting item. From Admin of the Caravan and Motorhome chat pages:

‘Seems Calor have u-turned on this one which is good news for many I am certain,  from Calor:

In February we announced plans to streamline our cylinder range to phase out the 3.9kg propane and 4.5kg butane sizes. 

Customers using these cylinder sizes, particularly in the boating and caravanning communities, told us they were frustrated by the limited availability of alternatives to these sizes of cylinder. We listened to their concerns and reviewed options for returning these cylinders back into circulation. 

We’re now pleased to announce that we’ll continue to supply the 3.9kg propane and 4.5kg butane sizes.

What’s changed?

Since the announcement, we have continued to fill a small number of these cylinders. And, following recent modernisation to our filling centres, we can now increase the supply of these cylinders. 

We’ll also start to refurbish and return cylinders back into the network to improve availability. This will take a little time as we are investing in a significant capacity increase in reconditioning facilities, but we’re working hard to return supply to normal as soon as possible.‘

See: https://www.caravantalk.co.uk/community/topic/167387-return-of-calor-39-45/

It would appear that Calor are about to announce something: there is nothing other than the statements of early 2023 on pages currently.

Also: I know that many marinas have changed their supply lines and stock a greater amount of Campingaz, so, whether or not marinas will go back to Calor, if the pull out is rescinded, remains to be seen.

Stay alert!

Note: from fellow sailor, Brian, the Westerly Owners Association carries the same worded message.

A little while ago there was a warning in the ‘yachting press’ about boat safety and in particular safety on inland waterways craft.

This is nothing new: Marine Industry Federation and MAIB (Maritime accident investigation branch) of the MCA have raised concerns earlier this year.

While down in deepest ‘land locked’ Wiltshire recently visiting family in Devizes, we saw a blaze taking place whilst passing over the Kennet & Avon Canal. It turned out that a most serious fire had taken place aboard a canal boat moored near the road bridge.

It is not known what caused the blaze, however, many of the occupants of these ‘live-aboards’ use wood for heating and gas for cooking. Stacks of wood are often seen atop the vessels as well as a miasma of other ‘junk’…

I was told that an intact gas bottle was seen floating by the wrecked vessel, indicating, perhaps, that it wasn’t a gas based conflagration.

It is pretty obvious that the inferno within caused partial destruction of the vessel as well as its sinkage – that, however, was most likely due to fire service flooding when combatting the blaze.

Food for thought eh!

As soon as the book hit the streets, people began asking for signed copies, which is nice. Interestingly the hard copy was as much in demand as the soft cover …

I’ve had two glitches: a few weeks ago, I sent all my stock to Salty Dogs Christmas season shop in Maldon – fronted by Photographer Den Philips – keeping back copies to cover the orders I still had to fulfill.

I need to go back a ‘bag’ another couple of copies to keep punters happy!

I had one email saying:

‘I have bought several of your books as  Christmas gifts and he (Dad) also enjoyed a recommendation I saw on your website for another boat book.
Anyway, if you could sign a copy for him ‘Mike’ that would be much appreciated…’

Then this fairly fulsome piece from a lady on the the first half of her read…

‘I thought your first chapter was very thoughtful and encouraging to get men to get checked. It can’t have been easy writing about your feelings. I’ve told friends your story (a brief version) to encourage them too. I think of the time  when you were going through it all and I can’t imagine what it must have been like for both of you in different ways. I’m just so glad you are so well now.’

Then, continuing:

‘I’ve read more and remember putting a bucket up the mast to go through the bridge in the Swale. Your time on the barge was so much nicer than a weekend I spent on Xylonite…

You provoke so many memories that I read the books twice to really enjoy the books properly usually with east coast rivers open too so I can see your route or a map for the walking.

Thank you for writing another one.’

Thank you!!

I had a card from a sailor in The Netherlands, thanking me for the safe arrival of a book, he said: ‘I have received your book in good condition! Now I am looking forward to a lot of reading pleasure…’

Another chap and his wife contacted asking for a signed copy, wrote:

‘I hope that you will keep sailing and writing those great books of yours because we’ll keep reading them!! ‘

Yes, kind reader, I will keep sailing for as long as good grace and health coexist, I promise… As for further writing, hmm, I don’t know – too early yet.

And, thank you to all those who have so far bought a copy of this book, it is greatly appreciated.

Whilst away down in West Sussex a little while back during the early autumn, I alighted on a book that looked interesting in a historical way. Great Years in Yachting by John Nicholson. It was published by Nautical Publishing Ltd, of Lymington in 1970. It is therefore still under copyright and I acknowledge with thanks all photographs of book pages.

This, of course, is the Nicholson of that famous Gosport (and Southampton) yacht designing and building fame. John is the son of Charles E. Nicholson, the doyen of yachting – designing, building and racing, as well as family cruising. The Nicholson’s owned and ran the firm of Camper and Nicholsons based adjacent to the Gosport/Portsmouth ferry.

The book is ostensibly about Charles Nicholson and the life of the firm during his period of chairmanship (There were three brothers) – John assumed control in the fulness of time, retiring c 1970, but covers a little of the companies pre-history too.

The family yachts get a reasonable and interesting coverage. John and his sister Mary were clearly the sailors amongst the Nicholson siblings: they were regularly crewing…

Charles made the mistake of many a (gung-ho) sailor and frightened the wits out of his young wife and she rarely stepped foot aboard a yacht following a very bad passage…

How many people have done this, I wonder!

The shear size and volume of the Nicholson production at Gosport and Southampton was phenomenal. The Southampton yard was opened as yachts grew in size and, more importantly, draft. Gosport’s slip could manage up to 15′, just.

There is a chapter on ‘Captains and Skippers’… Up until after the cessation of hostilities of the second world war, crews were professional, although amateurs were creeping in. The early interlopers were generally termed ‘Hired Assassins’ or later, ‘pier-head jumpers’ to be kinder and less derogatory. The day of the professional was certainly cropped after a strike of the crew of a mid 1930s Americas Cup Challenger. She was essentially the better yacht, but still lost!

I was amazed at the attitude of ‘build at no expense’ and the huge alterations carried out after a year on the racing circuit, but, it must be remembered that the worth of such men as Tommy Sopwith and his industrial contemporaries was immense. Akin to the Oligarchs washing around today.

Charles Nicholson was involved with all of the Endeavour Americas Cup projects and the last, Endeavour II, was faster and technically better than the American vessel, however, the aluminium mast of Ranger gave her an advantage in less heel in the generally light wind sailing in which the cup was sailed…

Camper & Nicholsons not only built the big classes and steam/motor yachts, but 12, 8 and 6 metre vessels, as well as cruising vessels for the less wealthy, however, these were still on the large size if you compare to say a yacht from an east coast yard.

The book ends with a short chapter on the ;Sound in the shipyard’ where John reminiscences on the lost cacophony produced by riveting, plate bending, hammering of the caulkers and the huge circular saws…

The firm moved with the times and a marina had filled the water off their Gosport Yard and they had slipped smoothly into the use of GRP.

The latter is not surprising for the firm had always been innovative using laminated timbers and diagonal planking etc throughout the early 1900s.

I was left with one huge overriding feeling of this lost world. The definite demarcation of the haves and have-nots – the ‘stench’ – not in a nasty way – of privilege…

Is it worth reading if you can find a copy, well, yes!

On the book’s launch day, a box packed full of the finished article arrived. Even though this is my seventh book, it was still an exciting moment to carefully open the box and lift out and hold a copy for the first time.

It was a book that was very nearly ‘binned’ due huge angst I felt about the way a number of yachting folk treated me (us both actually) after I wrote a blog asking people not to go away sailing overnight when not allowed during the first Covid 19 period. This was termed the ‘Cummings Effect’ after that man’s lockdown failings – something which has already been raised at the public enquiry currently taking place under Baroness Hallett.

Interestingly, the enquiry will be covering, ‘…the effects transgressors had on the law abiding population…’

A local man publicly threatened to burn Whimbrel and admitted the fact to a yachting journalist, who, sadly, did not specifically talk to me about the incident. He later admitted that he should have listened to my truthful facts…

The ‘gentleman’ who made the threat was somebody who I once looked up to as a fellow spirit of the waters. He claimed I had informed the authorities about his transgression … an absolute and utter lie, as he well knows.

This came about after the Marine Section of Essex Police visited his yacht club wanting to speak to a number of boat crews about sailing away overnight for a weekend over Whitsun Bank Holiday, 2020. I strongly suspect that the informer, if there was one, was a member of that club: I was informed much later that club officers were scurrying around trying to stop boats going out!

At the time there were various yotty blog and Facebook ‘boasts’ doing the rounds with pictures of anchorages with boats and their AIS (automatic identification system) plots. Kent police ‘raided’ Queenborough, asking for help. Thames VTS had them too, surely. Stupid buggers!

There was some vitriol on the ‘air waves’ too, by people who hadn’t even bothered to read my blog – they just wanted to wade in and vent their spleens.

There followed a vociferous and frightening verbal attack out on the water, the chap’s wife screamed at him to ‘stop it…’ Then, Essex Police treated the incidents as harassment…

All these people, to quote a news report I read, are no better than scum, essentially the cesspit of humanity. A damned good description.

I was still receiving my cancer treatment, so, ‘Thanks guys’, for they were all ‘men!’ You made our lives hell…

Following all of this, I completed magazine work that I had agreed to, but I have not written anything new for a magazine since, and current I remain in an indifferent mind to that world…

The book essentially covers my ‘battle’ with prostate cancer and is written as a severe warning to men: for me it was a close call…

There are various tales, some of which took place before my cancer and the over-lapping Covid period, others are tales and reminiscences during these episodes: both impinged in their own specific ways.

We enjoyed a ‘mid-covid-breather’ day aboard the Sea Change Sailing Trust’s barge Blue Mermaid. It was a scintillating day with just another two ‘passengers’ crewing alongside the normal three. There were still certain ‘distancing’ rules in place where appropriate.

It’s during the last few chapters that I get into the nuts of what it was like, as a sailor and walker, during the pandemic, and I discuss the ‘attacks’ made on us and the disgraceful attitude of Essex Police.

The ending is optimistic for the future, full of thankfulness for our escape from Covid harm.

Now, coming up to five years on from my diagnosis and initial treatment, My PSA is essentially zero and I am continuing to head confidently towards the future with many more blissful years with my mate beside me…

For the book:

See: Nick: Ardley | Author | Austin Macauley Publishers

The book can be obtained from other sites and, of course, direct from me, signed and messaged for free (!) but I have to include postage.

YouTube film clip to savour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-IDI9p3o28

Some many years ago we fitted a carpet into the main cabin aboard Whimbrel – it was something we did after I read in one of Francis B. Cooke’s books about ‘comfort afloat of an evening…’ In any case, it is almost a common sense action. Cooke believed in carpet slippers too!

A carpet makes such a difference below and we would not do without one now. We tend to wear ‘below’ shoes after the day’s passage has been made and movement is largely between cabin and cockpit.

The first carpet was cut out of an offcut from a piece we had ‘loafing’ about. It was the wrong type, but sufficed for a few seasons. It and another length are used by the mate when working under the boat, antifouling…

The current covering is made from floor runner rubber backed carpet – in two pieces for when main run done, I couldn’t find a longer piece. The join has been lifting and caused a number of tripping moments this last season – indicating time for action.

Next season’s comfort could not be jeopardised!

After carrying out a prolonged search, I found a company that sold ‘cut to length’ pieces. The only catch was a piece with a greater width than needed. Hey, but what the heck, it would do the job.

On a visit to Whimbrel this last weekend to do a couple of jobs, the old carpet was rolled up and brought home. (The bilge was vacuumed out too…)

I began the cutting to shape process by removing the rubber edge from the carpet. Then carefully laying the old as a pattern on the new, trimming was carried out…

On my next boat visit, the new will be checked for fit and trimmed if needed, then returned home for winter storage.

The old carpet is likely to go back aboard for it helps to keep the cabin floor clean, needing a vacuum from time to time.

At the end of a season, we have always washed the carpet – it being actually machine washable – however, hand scrubbing and rinsing is best, I have found, it being my job!

So there we go. One job off the list…

Last year when on a road passage between Arundel and Devizes, we passed through Midhurst, a delightful little town situated in the West Sussex National Park.

Investigating later, it was discovered to be not so far from Jane Austen’s childhood home. Bingo: a place both myself and the mate have wanted to visit…

So, a year on.

The family was uprooted and moved to Bath by their father after he retired, however in a short time he died leaving all his females at the mercy of his sons. One especially: Edward having been adopted by the Knight’s of Chawton house (relatives by marriage) was extremely rich – as rich as Darcy in Pride & Prejudice…

It was at this house where Jane was able to settle into her writing. She recomposed her earlier works before getting them published.

In the house Jane had her own corner in the front parlour where she could write whilst watching the outside world move around her…

Her writing table is so small, a mere ‘Sherry glass’ affair. It was a good job, apparently, that Jane was a tidy and efficient worker.

I wondered what she would have made of a laptop…

We also took in Chawton House, where Jane and her sister Casandra often visited. Both were active aunts to their brother’s brood, especially after his wife died.

Chawton is on long lease from the Knight family to a charity foundation digging into the history of women writers. Fascinating stuff…

It was quite moving to stand close to her desk and look out of windows she herself had, long ago, developing her ideas as life went on around her…

It put me aboard Whimbrel, sailing along a salting edge, gazing at some all but non existent time rotted stumps of a vessel or wharf, wondering…