Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
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What can I say? This time our hero Dylan Winter is fascinated as boatyard owner Brian Upson of the River Alde caulks a hull that probably needs a new plank or two.
Click here too for a moment of peace as Dylan fearlessly sails his fixed-keel boat up the narrow channel towards Snape. I really should tell him about the Blaxhall Ship before he moves on…
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Ben Crawshaw’s series of short videos recording his astonishing trip in Onawind Blue get better and better – if that’s possible.
The latest sees him rowing and sailing up the eastern Spanish coast from the Ebro Delta to Cap Salou in light winds – at times he’s nearly crushed by exhaustion yet at others he’s so jubilant he’s close to flying. Unmissable, moving stuff, I’d say, though encouraging someone else to do the same thing would be just about the last thing I’d do…
For more on Ben, Onawind Blue and trows light and otherwise, click here.
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Cruising a small boat in the western Med is the name Ben Crawshaw has given to a series of YouTube videos he has put together about his expedition to Ibiza and Formontera from the Spanish mainland.
So far there are only two of the series to watch, but already it’s clear the adventure was a real roller-coaster ride. Part two finds him on an exhilarating run to Formontera to meet friends for a dinner date aboard a restored 1929 British lifeboat; however the contrast with his honest account of the fear he felt in part 1 when sailing overnight to Ibiza could not be more stark. It’s not for nothing that he’s called the first episode Fear is a giant octopus.
See the videos at his weblog The Invisible Workshop here and here. Ben Crawshaw fans – and there are many – will be pleased to know there will be more to come…
I thought of Ben’s first video last night as I dipped into my book collection during a bout of insomnia. The volume in question was Old Jack by W H G Kingston. It’s a romantic story of derring-do on the high seas, and I have to say after just two chapters the adventuring has already been immense and the body count is mounting.
I was particularly taken with the advice an experienced sailor gave the young protagonist when he said that he would never be frightened so long as he was with his companion and the ship’s captain:
‘Peter laughed. “We may be very well in our way,” said he; “but Jack my advice is Trust in God and hold on to the weather rigging.”‘
For more on Ben and his Light Trow named Onawind Blue, click here.
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