For my own part I completed my theory day skipper at night school and was able to participate in some crewing (paying events). I sailed Maiden on her delivery trip from London to Southampton in preparation for the Hong Kong Challenge. I then sailed on Creightons Naturally in the 1997 Fastnet race!
Category: Maiden’s History
Now I am planning to go back, when Maiden is on her way again, to the country I love, to walk the Jordan trail which links Um Qais in the north and Aqaba in the south, with my daughter. We will take 40 days to walk the 650 kilometres passing through 52 villages on the way and we will meet Maiden when she sails into Aqaba!
Aged 14, I was so excited. I shot several frames on my old Praktica L2. It had a screw mount telephoto attached and, just like today, the camera didn’t have a light meter, so I didn’t use one to judge the exposure. Afterwards, I dashed home and processed the film in my bedroom that I’d turned into a darkroom. I knew I’d captured a moment but in those days, I had no idea how to get a photograph “out there” …
It is always strange when something so momentous happens on land when you are so far from it, and any form of human life or civilisation. The Albatross wheeling above your heads is not concerned by the Berlin Wall coming down. The celebrations in Europe are so far removed from us and yet we understand completely what this means for the Iron Curtain.