Roger Taylor - Ming Ming - the enigma

[PhillM]

I agree that maps can be a distraction

but Roger goes to a blip on a GPS

sounds his horn and comes home


don't get it

and

I fear I never will

Dylan

I have read all three books. I think the GPS and photos came in later because in book two he clearly says that he was told he had to produce evidence that he had been where he said he had been. I suspect the publisher wanted / needed it.

As for going "out there" without a clear destination, I sort of do get that. I can see that meeting the challenge of small boat sailing out in the big wild sea is a challenge in its own right.

On a slightly different note, I felt that by book three Roger was struggling to find too much to say and while it was still a good book, you can almost hear him looking for the "next thing" to do. I almost woried that he was in danger pf painting him into an image that people (publisher etc) would expect him to follow because it is commercially successful. It was nice to hear that he is fitting out a new boat for a different kind of adventure.

 

[jpcarter30]

Isn't he showing up with MingMing at the Boat Show at Excel?

If I can find out when he's speaking I can ask him that and a few other things.

I've just bought his first book but haven't read it yet. Quite keen to see the boat as well.

Anybody know when he's there?

 

[Marakei]

There's some more information about the boat show appearance at http://corribee.org/

 

[jpcarter30]

Thanks - MG. Be interesting to see his boat up close.

 

[grendy]

Brilliant and witty writer. I look on him as a modern-day marine version of H D Thoreau - the early 19th century chap who wrote about a year living a self-sufficient life on his own in a log cabin in the woods. Appreciate he's not for everyone but for me he hits the spot exactly. A great man.

 

[Tomahawk]

..........

sails to where the weather is generally horrid

keeps going until his GPS tells him that he has passed a number on the screen

say 80N

blasts his horn in celebration

and then comes home

Why?

I confess to wondering why someone wants to sail up a creek until they get stuck in the mud....

 

[dylanwinter]

I confess to wondering why someone wants to sail up a creek until they get stuck in the mud....

you should try it one day

you choose the right creek, sand is nicer than mud, hopefully with a following wind and you roll out a little bit of genoa and drift up with the tide feeling for the channel as you go - allowing your keels to touch the bottom occasionally. The boat will stop and necome an inert lump of plastic. Where you were once moving gracefully with the water through the landscape you stop for a while and the tide pushes against the boat curling and swirling around the hull. It gives you a chance to watch the birds around your - maybe have a brew.

Then as the tide continues to rise the boat lifts and comes alive again and moves on up and further inland. If you keep your head down - standing in the companionway of a small boat is ideal - the birds do not perceive you as a risk so you can drift so close that you can almost touch them. If you re lucky you will travel through the salt or sand marshes accompanied by a seal which will trying to trap fish along the side creeks.

Deciding when to turn back for deeper water is always a difficult call to make. Once the flow starts to slacken then you head back for slightly deeper water, drop a hook and wait for the tide to go. Hopefully it will be towards the evening and you can have your sundowner as the tide retreats. The accoustic symphony as the water swirls around the boat and then the wavelets start slopping against the hull between the keels. Eventually it goes completely and you can step over the side and go for a stroll in the twilight.

Later that night you can lie in your bunk as the tide returns and feel your boat lift and turn to the tide while the curlews mewl to the night.

The next morning you can get up and go for a pre-breakfast walk - but do not take too long about it.

Back in the cockpit, while the sun warms the world you can drink tea and toast large fat slices of bread to be eaten with marmalade. You sit and watch as the mircale of the tide happens all over again. If you sit quiet the birds will return and ignore you. You can see the fins of the mullet working their way along the shallows and maybe the seal from the previous night will come up and make the odd attempt at beaching a mullet.

The water will slowly start to fill the voids in the sand, picking up ower as it comes. One day I saw a spider crab wafting its crazy way up with the tide - never seen that before.

then the water continues to rise, slapping against the keels and the bottom of the hull. Within half an hour she is fully afloat and streaming to the incoming tide. The little boat is ready for another day.

Hope this helps

Dylan



on my section of the Humber there is a pair of harbour porpoises that work the channels at low tide

they are utterly amazing

 

[Tomahawk]

Dylan..
Sorry to be a nuisance but have you considered the practicality of doing that in a boat like Tomahawk? We are as wide as KatieL is long...We draw 1.1m on the exposed rudders... after that comes the outdrives.. Shallow water poses a very real risk of serous damage.. Toma is an open water speed machine.... Your videos do show the charming side of the coast where I would fear to go..

Perhaps one day we should meet at somewhere that offers both open water and access to a creek and go for a sail with each other..