Downsizing. It’s what you do when your children leave home or when you retire. You decide to move to a smaller house and buy a smaller car. It’s also what…
Cruising life
How we survived a storm and a heatwave in the eastern Mediterranean
Storm Daniel is, as I write, sending 45-knot Meltemi winds down through the Greek islands. We are sheltering aboard Celestine, an aluminium Carambola 38 masthead sloop, moored in Kalantos, a…
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Times columnist, wrote recently about objects which gradually vanish from familiar use, either because they are outdated in the modern world, or because they were always…
Is a yacht the best way to go seabird spotting in Scotland?
Braced against the rolling of the boat, I sipped scalding tea from the mug cradled in my cold hands and watched the misty blue hills of Scotland materialise ahead. Wandering…
Buying a boat ready for the Mediterranean: Retiring and finding maximum comfort
Our dream of buying a boat and cruising the Mediterranean could finally become reality. Now we just needed to turn fantasy into fact. Our new boat needed to be a…
East Coast Cruising: New York sightseeing by sea
Flying alone, I was due to meet our friends Janet and Richard in Rhode Island for east coast cruising, as our proposed UK crew had cancelled at short notice. Given…
A Hebridean Swallows and Amazons experience
When I was age 12 , we went on a family holiday on the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides off Scotland’s west coast. I was pottering around the…
Jeanneau SO 350 first look: Simplicity without stealing space
The Sun Odyssey 349 sold 2,500 hulls but after 12 years of service it was due for replacement. The new Jeanneau SO 350 answers the call. The 350 follows her…
A classic American cruise: Sailing from British Columbia to San Francisco
It felt great to be heading out to sea once more on a classic American cruise. The forecast was for an enjoyable sail to San Francisco over the next few…
‘We seemingly plunged off the edge of the world’: Experiencing freak waves
Salvage tug captain Nick Sloane can claim a library of feats of derring do amongst freak waves. He even salvaged the Costa Concordia, which was a wonder of engineering. If…