For 15 years I had been the proprietor of a small general store in one of the newer suburbs of Bristol. I didn’t exactly hate every moment of it, but always felt that this was only a temporary occupation, that there must be more to life than this daily humdrum routine.

My love of sailing had first begun before the war when I had crewed on a couple of daytrips on a small ancient gaff sloop, later owning a small clinker dinghy at Canvey Island. It therefore seemed natural that I should return to sailing when I sought relief from the tedium of my everyday life.

I was fortunate in being able to find and purchase an old threequarter decked, 3 ton sloop for a very reasonable price. For the next ten years, all my leisure was spent sailing or working on her, during which period I turned her into a passable 2 berth masthead sloop. Most weekends in the season I would be on the boat and became adept at handling her alone. I longed to make a really long voyage but business and family ties forbade this.

In December 1965, my brother in law Len, who crewed with me whenever he could get the time off was offered a job in Australia. He accepted and with his wife and two children left England in April 1966. This was a great loss to both my wife and myself and we debated whether we should pull up our roots and follow suit. Our two sons were by now both at work and able to lead their own lives independently, but our elder daughter was in her last year at school and wished to stay on for her ‘A’ level exams. We hesitated to deny her the opportunity to do this. The decision was postponed. (more to come)