New
AcquisitionsUK Circumnavigation; Ray and Margo Glaister; Adlard Coles Nautical, 2000, ISBN: 0-7136-5355-8, £8.99
This book is the first in a series of Skipper's Cruising Guides. It is not a pilot but a narrative log of Babaji in 1998 when Ray Glaister and Margo sailed up the West Coasts of Ireland and Scotland to reach Fair Isle and returned down the East Coast to Suffolk. It is an easy read.
Every day, except storm days in harbour, there is a new page, a different map, a new trip and a photograph, until you get to Berwick-on-Tweed when you are treated to one of Margo's watercolours, rendered in black and white but which still retains some of the charm of the original. There are notes on harbours, facilities, interesting people and places to see on land. Best of all, it notes the things that impressed them, the castles and the precipitous cliffs, the warmth of the hospitality and the boats they met. Some of the detail in the text spoils the broader picture, I found the price of diesel, mobile phone reception or mooring repetitive and distracting. Some of the maps were at an inappropriate scale and none of them mentioned the great geographical headlands and bays which are so important to the coastal sailor and the reader: Brandon Point and Malin Head are in the text but not on the maps.
I happened to shout greetings to Babaji in Tobermory and have often wondered how they got on during their intrepid voyage; now I know. This little book is a great appetitizer for the intending skipper and to others it will provide happy memories of past voyages and fantasies of trips still to come. – BS
Page prepared 4 May 2000
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