Funny how the more abstract and esoteric aspects of navigation can at first seem dusty and impenetrable – brain-numbing even – and best avoided (or at least put off until next winter), only for some inspiring fellow to come along and blow all your preconceptions out of the water.

Take deviation, for example – the compass variety that is. I was out on the water with Tom Cunliffe, working on an article about compasses for a forthcoming edition – look out in the spring for our Expert on Board feature about swinging said instrument – when he suggested we pop by his old friend Ron Robinson’s for a chat on the subject. ‘He’s THE person to talk about it all,’ enthused Tom. ‘He’s just over there in Hamble and he’s got picturesque office packed with nautical bric-a-brac that goes back centuries.’ Well, you can’t say fairer than that.

A tie-up, a skip and jump later and we were outside Mr Robinson’s shop, a veritable treasure trove of salty curios that would make any yachtsman drool – here a half-size Hughes sextant from between the wars, there a rusting binnacle off something classic, propped up by a genuine working mercury barometer.

Mr Robinson himself was a revelation, one of only ten compass adjusters left working in the country, who – when not collecting marine antiquities – swings leisure yachts as well as boats for the Royal Navy and has even swung the QE2. He invited us in, talked us through his job and what instruments he uses and brought the whole subject dazzlingly to life.

Where once I instinctively yawned at the thought of calculating compass deviation, now I was captivated by this arcane and mysterious art. As he described his ‘heavenly alchemy’ and how when he’s on a ship adjusting compasses he actually sees the polar reds and blues of the magnetic forces working their deviant ways on the instruments, it was as if I was being instructed by some maritime ‘dowser’ who instead of searching out pockets of water with wooden sticks, sniffs out those invisible malignant energies that send our compasses doolally. What an enlightening encounter with such an inspiring individual! Read the full story in the new year.