I was a freelance contributor for Yachting Monthly for many years and served under six editors: the late Geoff Pack who accepted my first piece, Andrew Bray, James Jermain, Sarah Norbury, Paul Gelder and Kieran Flatt. All different; some were good on ideas, others I could trust to do a great job on editing, but all were excellent.

The first piece I sent in was called ‘Landfall’. It recounted the night my wife Ros and I arrived in Barbados in an engineless gaff cutter, 42 days out from Rio de Janeiro. I was encouraged by getting this published to write a piece on star sights – astro navigation being the tool of the era for ocean wanderers. This went down well too, to my amazement and the rest, as they say, is history.

Apart from my journalism I have several further ‘hats’ – television presenter, lecturer, after-dinner speaker, consultant on seamanship, and coaching aboard your yacht. Check out my website www.tomcunliffe.com, and my weekly video blogs at https://www.youtube.com/user/tomcunliffe1