Roving Commissions 46 - Royal Cruising Club Journal 2006

Publisher: Royal Cruising Club

Publication Date: 2006

CA Library Reference: 16760

It is always an inspiration and a pleasure to read of the exploits of the members of the Royal Cruising Club, even if they leave one with a slightly wimpish feeling or not having doubled Cape Farewell recently – or ever. The forty-sixth edition of Roving Commissions is no exception and contains well-written accounts of over three dozen cruises. As befits the membership of such a club, these voyages are undertaken in a variety of craft and in all parts of the world. Illustrations and maps demonstrate the extraordinary extent of such voyages; one, for example, shows the track of Marguerite from Falmouth to Tobago and back again, with a delightful islandhopping through the Antilles from Tobago to Anguilla, before heading home. Another plots the courses followed by Jura through Icy Strait north of Chichagof Island, Alaska and, in contrast, Penelope’s Ark threads her way down through Europe from Cologne to Arles.

Indeed the sheer diversity of these adventurous voyages is one of the chief pleasures of the volume and embedded within the prose are some quite lyrical descriptions of places, handy and practical tips, and some courteously veiled hints of what not to do in such-and-such a place. If you are tired of the rather relentless similarity of commercially produced local-knowledge guides, there is much to be gleaned from the industrious members of the RCC and Jonny
Clothier is to be congratulated on putting the year’s achievements – the club’s 125th – on record.

Under-pinning all these accounts is the sense of quiet satisfaction we all feel at the successful conclusion of a passage, of over-coming the difficulties and of appreciating the world about us – the very essence of cruising. - RMW