One woman's year alone at sea

Sandy said:
On the skim read I've had she was not really alone or at sea for a year, just lived on a boat. None event really.
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I skimmed as far as:

" Brittany is the epicentre of sailing and everyone was interested in my journey. “You are taking on the nose of Brittany!?! By yourself? In this leetle boat?” This reaction became common, so rare are solo female sailors."

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And there was me wondering how Breetany produces so many attractive women sailing their 'leetle' carbon fibre boats like sea witches bouncing off every corner of the globe as they go :rolleyes: ;)
 
I agree with her about the Med. Been here for a few days and been lashed with the heaviest ran I have ever seen (caused flooding along the coast) and had a wild broach of a ride (a scrap of sail up) in what was forecast to be F4 with gusts of 6. Average speed for 60 nm was 10.5 knots. I felt like turning back to the Atlantic.
 
I have always envied those who are able to make a few quid out of their sailing hobby, but not enough to be jealous or spiteful toward them.
But the attractive picture she is painting could result in more Guardian readers in boats when we all know sailors should be miserable beggars who read the Mail.
 
Sgeir said:
So, what's the problem with writing for a wider audience?

OK, you know lots of people who've done that, whereas I only know a few, so I like to read about their experiences. Articles about sailing are interesting for many folk in here. That's why they read the magazines that sponsor this forum.
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I suppose it is a generational thing.

When I was young we would do something, perhaps a day out doing Point 5 on the Ben or a week in Skye climbing, at the end of the day get down to the pub and say we had a cracking day. These days you need to record things, ideally with a drone, to show the world.
 
Quandary said:
But the attractive picture she is painting could result in more Guardian readers in boats when we all know sailors should be miserable beggars who read the Mail.
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Lol, the combination of a free press and a free market has spawned a myriad of papers in the UK, not to mention the foreign editions.

The Guardian's circulation is falling faster than most, losing over a quarter of its readers since 2012. Perhaps it cares about this, perhaps not. Either is fine.
 
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Sandy said:
When I was young we would do something, perhaps a day out doing Point 5 on the Ben or a week in Skye climbing, at the end of the day get down to the pub and say we had a cracking day. These days you need to record things, ideally with a drone, to show the world.
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I suppose it must have all gone wrong for you when Ben Humble, Bill Murray, Tom Patey, Tom Weir et al started writing about their days out.
 
Sgeir said:
I suppose it must have all gone wrong for you when Ben Humble, Bill Murray, Tom Patey, Tom Weir et al started writing about their days out.
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Or those sodding Abraham Brothers capturing on wet plates or film every move the Victorian climbing pioneers made.

And don't get me started on Beken. Let's face it, you didn't ever see or read about anything to do with sailing until 'selfies' were invented. About 1880.
 
And if have to read one more inane blog from Maurice Griffiths about his weekend or Claud Worth about being unshaven in Cowes High St I'll go crazy.
 
Sgeir said:
I suppose it must have all gone wrong for you when Ben Humble, Bill Murray, Tom Patey, Tom Weir et al started writing about their days out.
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Mountaineering in Scotland is one of the definitive books on the subject and my Desert Island book. Written many years after the event in a prisoner of war camp during WWII.

Hamish MacInnes also wrote a moving book "Call-Out" about mountain rescue. As the son of a nurse in the Belford Hospital she had some interesting stories to tell.

Saying all that I have appeared in a "vblog" of the climb, Moonraker on Berry Head, the first belay being the boat! My job was to look after the boat, my days of climbing HVS 5a are long gone, and spending the day on a rising F4 easterly on a rather vertical lee shore was rather "interesting".
 
Sgeir said:
Ah, the Rannoch Moor lifeboat incident.....
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You know the book :)

There is still a Terrordactyl ice axe in the loft, that gives my age away! But the ideal tool for Scottish winter climbing. I should donate it to a museum.
 
Sandy said:
. . . There is still a Terrordactyl ice axe in the loft . . . I should donate it to a museum.
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If it is the axe and not the hammer (they already have mine), then the Mountain Heritage Trust would love one for the collection ( http://www.mountain-heritage.org ).

There is a national collection in Scotland as well, but I know that they have one as well as a lot of Hamish MacInnes' archive.
 
Sandy said:
There is still a Terrordactyl ice axe in the loft, that gives my age away!
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I also still have my Terrordactyl axe, great for tent pegs. Still perfectly useable which is more than can be said for the French ("Charlet dit 'non'") hammer that I bought at the same time. The pick buckled on the second day.......
 
Leaving aside the alpinistas.
I quite enjoyed her tale. Not too overdramatic and a nice feel about things. The sexist attitude in Iberia did not surprise me. Not many, but you do notice them..
The cabin shot was 'interesting' not what I have seen in most cruising boats a bit bigger. Every other shot I have seen in a mid 20s boat had quite a lot more clutter. A lot more..
I wish her well.
 
DownWest said:
Leaving aside the alpinistas.
I quite enjoyed her tale. Not too overdramatic and a nice feel about things. The sexist attitude in Iberia did not surprise me. Not many, but you do notice them..
The cabin shot was 'interesting' not what I have seen in most cruising boats a bit bigger. Every other shot I have seen in a mid 20s boat had quite a lot more clutter. A lot more..
I wish her well.
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She doesn't have any oven, which effectively gives her another locker in the saloon. I guess her boat has the same configuration as mine, two quarter berths rather than a vee berth in the stem. There's a lot more storage there, too. Mine also has small lockers above the berths as well. They make the saloon a bit more claustrophobic but I really need the space. I like the white T&G saloon lining it's lightened the interior a lot, but no curtains(?) OK for when you're anchored but I do like a bit of privacy in harbour. My heads (in the fore cabin) doubles as my sail locker and the chain locker is behind the Lavac. Not a lot of free space there either.

The aluminium window frames indicate a late model '26 which would definitely have been a Burns fit out, unless she was originally "Pinkaloo" which was fitted out by Halmatic for a director.
 
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