From Russia With Love: Brexit
Context I’ll start by saying I’m a Remainer. I have been all my adult life. When I moved back to England in 1977 questions of Europe, the Common Market, and the UK’s role in it were rife. Eurosceptics abounded. Things …
Photos: Jardín Botanique – Deshaies
Position: 16°17’58″N 61°47’50″W Guadeloupe sealed the deal for us. As soon as we stepped ashore we were in France. Everything from the road signs to l’insouciance de la police made us feel as though we’d been magically transported 6,000 kilometres …
Video: Climbing Mt. Scenery – Saba Island
Position: 17°38’00.4″N 63°14’19.7″W Climbing to the top of Mount Scenery on Saba Island, it is easy to forget you’re on an active volcano. The lava dome is not only the top of the island, but the highest point in the …
Saba Island with Photos
Position: 17°37’58.3″N 63°14’16.3″W Clouds hang on Saba. Viewed from St. Martin, Saba (pronounced Say-bah) is a giant fist of a volcano thrust out of the sea. The volcano is quiet these days, but as you approach from the north you …
A Vorpal Slice of Hogmanay
Position: 18°30’02″N 64°21’57″W Last year we celebrated New Year’s Eve in Charleston, South Carolina. Avid readers of this blog will recall the ‘bomb cyclone’, aka freak snowstorm, that brought the city to a standstill. Our big celebration was to crawl …
Creative Writing
I started and did not finish a Coursera course on Creative Writing. Here is one of the exercises and my submission. Peer feedback was only available to paying customers, not for us auditors. If the story sounds derivative and familiar, …
Seeking British Virgins
Position: 18°25’05″N 64°36’35″W Having ordered our new windlass motor, we were stuck in the Virgin Islands until it arrived. Having successfully raised the anchor by hand with all my vertebrae intact, we left the US Virgins and headed over to …
Video: The Baths, Virgin Gorda
Position: 18°25’48.8″N 64°26’40.7″W We take a visit to The Baths on Virgin Gorda. You can pick up a free mooring and swim or paddle into the beach there. The Baths are a natural wonder. Huge boulders form caves and pools …
Windlasses, Anchors and Arnie
Position: 18°21’05″N 64°34’39″W For the past few weeks we have hung around waiting for a replacement motor for our Lighthouse 1501 windlass. For the uninitiated, a windlass is a machine that raises your anchor so you don’t have to. Lighthouse …