Water

Respect it.

It petrifies me.

I witnessed someone drowning when I was a kid, then one of my father's best friends, Gren (Grenville), drowned too.
On Scilly. Off St. Agnes.

That's why he insisted that we all learn to swim.

I have resuscitated more than a few drowned people in my life.

On the water

R.M.V. Scillonian II

(Royal Mail Vessel)

I hated this bitch. I wasn't alone.

The trip between Penzance and St Mary's is notoriously choppy. Serious. The ship didn't sail in winter.

Scillonian II was a rolling ship. I wasn't a good sailor as a kid and this thing rolled and pitched about like hell. I would spend my time on her hunkered down in her bowels. As low as I could get - where it rolled less.

It wasn't just me that suffered.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g186309-i1326-k4203135-Penzance_St_Marys_Ferry_Sea_Sickness-Isles_of_Scilly_England.html

The chopper was a real alternative but expensive. Seems they now have a plane too.

https://www.islesofscilly-travel.co.uk/

Even the Captain was once taken off to a waiting ambulance.

Canoe

Thanks Father.

He bought Bob & I dilapidated wooden canoes. Which we then rebuilt.
I've canoed all over the place.
Rivers, Sea, Abroad.

Canoed to France and back once. It took longer than an hour 9. ;-)

British Steel

Sir Charles Blyth

In 1971 Blyth became the first person to sail non-stop westwards around the world, aboard the yacht British Steel, taking 292 days, and as a result was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1972 New Year Honours for services to sailing.

The father of my girlfriend of the time, bought it.

Lived on this boat in Brighton Marina for a good while.

Hence Poppy in the dog section.
(& yes, I lived on a boat with a dog recovered from a broken back!)

Motor / skiing

F3 Champion Water Ski Racing

England to France and back in 1 hour 9

Bob & I with father
The race boat - outside my childhood home

Carlos

This was my Windy 35 HT.

Used her a lot.

Slept 6, showers and toilet plus kitchen on board, bar-b-que on the back deck.

She was known all over the lake.

Every weekend. She was out either cruising, laying or pulling skiers (2 or 3 at a time).

Under the water

Ask any woman. Being wet is where it's at.

Can't hear people's senseless yacking for a start.

I have to say a massive Thank You to the people who infected me with the diving bug.

I have been very lucky. Most of my diving has either been Middle or Far East, or Maldives. I've done lots of it. Night, Deep, V Deep, Rescue, OSA.

Different gases (Air, Nitrox, Trimix, Heliox), different depths, different reasons.

I would clasify myself as an Selachimorphaphile.

Have even been deep enough for long enough to have to use a Decompression Chamber.

Love it.

Bedroom

Sleep with the fishes
(From the Godfather)

royal yacht britannia

in build