Known to any Mediterranean sailor as the author of most of the pilot books that guide and enlighten us, Rod Heikell first set out for the Med in 1976 as a restless graduate in a 20' sailing boat which had a compass, lead line and mostly out of date charts. It took him five days to get from the Isle of Wight to St. Malo (mainly because the compass was 30° out, because of a last-minute addition of a mild steel tiller bracket) where he and his girl friend were defeated by one of the hottest of recent summers that closed the canals they intended to use. It wasn't till the following year they finally made it to Greece via the Brittany canals and the Canal du Midi.

Once there he found employment in the new flotilla industry and was soon running nearly 20 boats all around the Greek islands. The flotilla notes he produced for these provided the basic experience for his first pilot books. It wasn't long before his company wanted to promote him to a senior desk job and it took help from Willie Wilson at Imray's to convince his boss that writing pilot books would keep him a lot happier.Thus the Greek Waters Pilot was born, and he added other books throughout the 80s and 90s. Most of these are still being updated every couple of years as the number of yachts and facilities increases and the CA library registers 35 editions of 19 titles.

He hasn't just covered the Med. In 1990 he sailed down the Danube in a boat even smaller than his original and provided the only river guide to large parts of Eastern Europe. He spent two years researching his Indian Ocean pilot which covers the Malay archipelago and has published various other guides before and since. For many sailors, “Heikell” has become synonymous with “Pilot Book”. He also manages Imray's charts for the Mediterranean.

Rod now sails a 46' Warwick Cardinal named Skylax with his wife Lu (née Mitchell) who also co-authors many of his books. He says that before they married “I had to tell her that I would always spend more money on a mistress than a wife. The mistress at that time was a previous boat, seven tenths, a Cheoy Lee Pedrick 36.” She agreed and he says “Lu is my muse, my shipmate, the one I bless at three in the morning when she comes up to take her watch.” At the start of the CA centenary year, when he has been elected a Vice-President of the CA, Rod and Lu have just arrived in Antigua having crossed the Altlantic from the Cape Verde islands.