water
I have always been a water boy. I remember our large pool in Nairobi where Graeme nearly drowned ... slowly sinking to the bottom until someone reached in and pulled a stunned looking boy out. And I have great memories of sunny Mombasa where it was always warm and the waves were always crashing.
In Australia I swam in the Hume dam, near Bonegila our first migrant camp, then in the Patawalunga at Glenelg, a suburb of Adelaide. We spent hours on Henley and West Beach as kids.
In my teens and early twenties I surfed, snorkeled and scuba dived around South Australia, up the east coast, in the Northern Territory and in the Pacific.
But it was a boat that I really hankered after. At West Beach my first craft was a horrible heavy catamaran with a gaff rig. It weighed a ton and took a gale to move it, but it was mine. The local yacht club, sailing sharpies and 505's, must have cursed the obstacle I presented to them, but at that time I was oblivious to them. It took till I was in my mid forties to get my first decent yacht - a Farr 6000 traier sailer - which I had for ten years, followed by "feeling swell", a Northshore 340 which I had for another ten years before letting her go in 2015.
I am not finished with yachts just yet, and in 2015 I bought an International One Metre (IOM) class radio controlled racing yacht and joined the Risdon Brook Radio Yacht Club (RBRYC)
Its not all about swimming and boats though. the links below run through my experience with my favourite element
In Australia I swam in the Hume dam, near Bonegila our first migrant camp, then in the Patawalunga at Glenelg, a suburb of Adelaide. We spent hours on Henley and West Beach as kids.
In my teens and early twenties I surfed, snorkeled and scuba dived around South Australia, up the east coast, in the Northern Territory and in the Pacific.
But it was a boat that I really hankered after. At West Beach my first craft was a horrible heavy catamaran with a gaff rig. It weighed a ton and took a gale to move it, but it was mine. The local yacht club, sailing sharpies and 505's, must have cursed the obstacle I presented to them, but at that time I was oblivious to them. It took till I was in my mid forties to get my first decent yacht - a Farr 6000 traier sailer - which I had for ten years, followed by "feeling swell", a Northshore 340 which I had for another ten years before letting her go in 2015.
I am not finished with yachts just yet, and in 2015 I bought an International One Metre (IOM) class radio controlled racing yacht and joined the Risdon Brook Radio Yacht Club (RBRYC)
Its not all about swimming and boats though. the links below run through my experience with my favourite element
RBRYC
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The river Derwent
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