From Leadlines to Satellites

Almost 50 years ago I met a wild American teenager, Terrie, and was keen to impress her. My elder brother had a 26ft sailboat, Wallop, on the east coast of England. He was conveniently out of the way in Canada. “Let’s go sailing,” I said. We filled the bilges with bottles of homemade beer and set off across the North Sea to Amsterdam with an ancient set of charts and minimal navigational experience. We had a fine adventure until a freighter ran into the back of us while we were becalmed off the Dutch coast.

1970s: Camping Out

’s engine was hand cranked and temperamental, which is why we were unable to get out of the way of the freighter. We had an intermittently operative depthsounder powered by flashlight batteries and supplemented with a handheld lead line. Aside from was in many respects a typical cruising boat for those times.