During a chilly autumn week we had to do a 36-hour round trip to Calais – we were foot passengers on one of the few ferries that still tolerate such…
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‘Navigating infancy makes rock pilotage and tidal calculation look like a stroll in the park’ – Libby Purves
I applaud the idea of families with small children trying out what cruising would be like with them as crew. One of the many things never mentioned in National Childbirth…
A grudging feeling of gratitude to our awful water companies
Water management isn’t something we talk about enough on our cruising boats. Blue-water sailors think about it a lot, obviously, and we have, in our time, installed – and mothballed…
‘Being stuck in a lifeboat with a tiger is, to say the least, untypical’ – Libby Purves
I won’t be in theatres with a notebook as much as usual this month – time for some wider, wetter horizons – but may be musing, as I often do,…
Libby Purves calls time on the ship’s bell
Giles Coren, the mischievous Times columnist, wrote recently about objects which gradually vanish from familiar use, either because they are outdated in the modern world, or because they were always…
‘Why we’ll all miss the shipping forecast’ – Libby Purves
The long-wave shipping forecast reaches its centenary in 2024, though it’s not much of a celebration given that LW itself, ‘at the end of its life as a technology’, will…
Libby Purves on child-friendly cruising skills
Wisely, a recent issue of Yachting Monthly addressed the practicalities of making your boat child-friendly: indeed many sensible adjustments are good for all, since adult humans too get clumsy and…
Why the old skills belong in a museum – Libby Purves
The Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood gave me a shock when I went there to interview curators and admire the ancient toys and equipment of bygone infancy. There, in a…
Why sailors love a good problem – Libby Purves on problem solving at sea
Never underestimate that for some boat-owners (though not necessarily their crews or partners), it is the maintaining and problem-solving that form half the satisfaction. Especially the latter: a puzzle is…
Libby Purves podcast – January 2015
‘In this boat-free season of family gatherings, here’s a fine new holiday game…’ In Swallows and Amazons, the children endearingly name creeks and inlets, islands and bays: Wild Cat Island,…