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A Hunter from 1936 My father Walter is 86 years old. He was born in 1936. He is almost as old as Wood Rose: a classic, hardwood, 24’ Gaff-rigged yacht, built and launched the year before at Hunter’s yard in the Norfolk Broads. Me sailing Wood Rose on Horsey Mere. Image (C) Roger Haynes The Broads is a series of medieval peat-workings that flooded, despite wind-powered pumping, as sea-levels gradually rose. The opportunity that these new ditches and broad, open lakes provided

(c) Lawrence Durrell, The Greek Islands If you ask a British tourist in Greece what they know about the Cyclades, they are likely to give a variety of answers, depending on their background. Your average ancient Greece historian is likely to tell you about Delos (the centre of the Delian League), an island deemed to be the birthplace of Apollo (the sun god) and his twin sister Artemis (goddess of hunting, childbirth, the moon, and interestingly, chastity). Her Roman equivalen

1. The lee of the mainland bares a lighter sea hue, we spy horses ahead frothing white o’er dark blue. The cape off port-bow portends wind’s sharpest teeth; “Reef the main, Missy Bear, and head east-by-sou’-east”. 2. The chart hints of isles lying oceans apart, but it’s line-of-sight sailing each morn‘ we depart. The far, craggy rocks loom for’d of her shrouds, their high peaks caressed by white duvets of cloud. 3. Shearwaters wheel freely low over the crests, and dolphins

Concentrating? I’ve probably said it before, but I’ll say it again. This is not a holiday; we are living on board. Although while we were in Poros, it feels like a strange mix with so many memories. We reached down from Epidavros. We had a glorious sail, and even gybed in through the gap to Poros island, although conceded the bigger part of the channel to the large car ferry from Athens. We close-hauled and tacked into Navy Bay as far as we dared with all the boat traffic. T

A shared Orthodox faith I made the classic mistake of asking a taxi driver for his opinion. What made it worse was that this taxi driver happened to be Greek and the question was, “ What do the Greeks think of Putin? ” As if it were possible for him to answer that! Well, his answer lasted the entire 15-minute journey from the sanctuary to old Epidavros port. And he barely stopped for breath. There were a few conspiracy theories thrown in, but in case you were wondering, his i