Sailing to Foreign Ports

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Last week’s holiday was a time to talk about what we both might want to actually spend our days in retirement doing. Now I have all kinds of aspirations involving horticulture and interior design as well as researching the family tree and taking up again various abandoned arts and crafts. For a long time however I have known that Mister E has harboured ambitions to cross large oceans in rather small sailing vessels. It was inevitable, therefore, that we spent some of our time on Gran Canaria peering at the boats in various marinas.

I was relieved when Mister E confessed that he probably now has a greater sense of fear than in his younger days and perhaps the appeal of a transatlantic crossing is dimming. But Mister E is a dreamer and after a lingering visit to Puerto Mogan, he proceeded to tell me how comfortable the voyage would be with the Trade Winds with us (I loved the inclusivity of his description).

Call me a coward, but I had to say that, as someone with “Day Sailor” emblazoned across her forehead, I don’t feel bold enough for such an undertaking and, despite joining Mr E on numerous Cross-Channel sailing races in our pre-children days, when I sail I like to be able to view the coastal scenery. I know Christopher Columbus set out from Gran Canaria in 1492, but here in 2013 I don’t actually have any desire on my own part to prove to my own eyes that the world is not flat.


 I suggested we should start small and safe to begin with and perhaps even hire a barge on Britain’s inland waterways, if a rowing boat becomes boring.

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