Sailing By – the famous theme tune of the BBC Radio Shipping Forecast for British waters, shoe-horned onto the two-row melodeon.
It represents another triumph, I think, for the ingenious inventor of this intriguing Rubik’s cube of an instrument!
Tag: Gavin Atkin
John Krause’s Julie skiff fitted with an electric outboard
This is John Krause on a fishing outing in his recently built Julie skiff made from ply and epoxy. He adapted the 15ft-something rowing skiff’s transom slightly for use with an electric outboard, but it still looks pretty well, don’t you think? Well done John!
There are more pictures at John’s weblog.
Julie skiff boat building plans are available to download for free here. Free plans for similar boats at 14 and 12ft are also available on this page.
John Connolly’s great song Fiddler’s Green
Thinking about the crew of the Humber sloop Spider T spending a night at Grimsby Docks caused me to reminisce and reminded me of the song Fiddler’s Green, made by local musician and librarian John Connolly.
As a song it has earned my respect over the years for the number of people who know and sing it, including fishermen in the area where we now sail – and for the way the Connolly’s lyrics manage to be sentimental without becoming mawkish. He’s a clever chap, that John Connolly.
I grew up a few miles away from Grimsby, and a trip to the docks with my father was a favourite outing when I was a teenager – it had smells, sounds and sights that I hadn’t come across anywhere else, and of course there was the impressive Dock Tower standing like a sentry near the dock gates. The Wikipedia says it’s modelled on the Torre del Mangia tower on the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, though I remember that it was often called the Venetian Tower by locals.
Whatever the derivation of the tower’s architecture, it remains a powerful symbol of Grimsby’s maritime past and is Grade 1 listed.