Three reasons who Anno NTK is a bad thing.
In an elegant ruse to excuse themselves from writing any further instalments, Danny, Dave and Lee have just launched Anno NTK. Each Friday afternoon, this will deliver a 15 year timeshifted copy of...
View ArticleIn praise of Malcolm Barnsley
A decade ago I read an article about two men setting out to break the outright world speed sailing record – then just over 45 knots. They were proposing to build a radical new kind of sailing boat....
View ArticleAnsel Adams on digital photography, from 1983
An exhibition of Ansel Adams photographs is on at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich until April 28. We duly took our eldest, who likes to take the odd photo. Sadly, the exhibition was heaving....
View ArticleGoogle Earth as a tool for planning dinghy cruises
I enjoy cruising my sailing dinghy around the rivers and coastline of Essex and Suffolk, and have recently discovered a feature in Google Earth which makes planning trips that little bit easier. Google...
View Article“Let’s prod the beast, and see if it’ll move”
In last week’s Spectator there’s an article by Peter Lilley. It is subtitled thus: “Today’s MPs are no longer scared of the whips. Instead, they are scared of their constituents. That’s a good thing.”...
View ArticleDinghy desire paths
GPS tracks after 3 years sailing the River Blackwater. I bought Wanderer 446 (a 14 foot sailing dinghy) nearly three years ago. She’s given me much joy as we’ve explored the River Blackwater in Essex....
View ArticleBen Moon is 49
Ben Moon is 49. 25 years ago he climbed Hubble (8c+), then the hardest climb in the world. Last week he climbed Rainshadow, a 9a route at Malham Cove. In my late teens he and Jerry Moffatt were our...
View ArticleCrazy Frenchman + Small Open Catamaran + Circumnavigation = Much respect
Sometime tomorrow morning Yvan Bourgnon will sail into Ouistreham Riva-Bella after a 30,000 mile / 220 day circumnavigation in a 6m open catamaran. That’s “open” as in “has no shelter”. It’s like a big...
View Article‘No pay, no prospects, not much pleasure’*
H.W.Tilman’s accounts of his mountaineering and sailing escapades have long swirled around the edges of my consciousness. Now I’ve no excuse, with a gorgeous new collected edition of Tilman’s work...
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