Authors Electric

Monday Oct 29 th 2018: Peter Duck was on her mooring, lying to the flood. The wind was blowing in the opposite direction, straight down the river from the cold nor’ nor’-east. It was going to be impossible to hoist the mainsail as the full force of the wind would be bellying into it as soon as it was half way up the mast. I tried the foresail. It was flappy and excitable, offering only to sail us off at an angle which would put us directly on the mud. The channel is quite narrow here and there was little water as yet. I was impatient to set off. my brother, Ned  hoisting the  mizzen - many years ago I went aft and consulted the mizzen. This is my favourite sail. My friend George Jepps (who lends his name to a ‘Peter Duck’-ish character in forthcoming Pebble ) once called it Peter Duck ’s “rudder in the sky” The smallest child can raise or lower it and it’s a sail that will always try to help if you ask. Former PD owner Greg Palmer once gave it as his opinion t...

I remember many summer holidays from my childhood. While my school friends were off burning their fair skin on the Costa del Sol, us lot stuck to the delights of the British Isles. My father was afraid of flying and my mother had a Scottish complexion that couldn't take bright sunlight or temperatures above a warm English summer's day. That was the reason given for our reluctance to leave the island. Or maybe we just didn't have the money. English holidays, old-style Our first family holidays involved camping in tents. Later we progressed to a caravan towed by whatever monster of a banger my father had recently purchased from a dodgy dealer. Then we upgraded to renting a mobile home (yes, old-fashioned British people go to trailer parks for their holidays!) on a large serviced site next to the sea in Norfolk, bringing kayaks on the roof rack of another dilapidated car and paddling around the salt marshes behind the dunes when weather permitted. Other times sitting o...