It's just two weeks to Christmas 2013 and I've been back from the Baltic for three and a half months now.  Toytown, my yacht, is laid up in the Aland Isles in Finland again, and Siv and Tor who run the boatyard, together with their grandson Ken, are looking after her until she is launched again next May. I sold my cottage in May and the first two months since returning in September I stayed with an old friend on her farm in Cobham, Surrey.  I first met Candy in 1959 after I'd joined the Merrymakers, the musical society that changed my life in two short hours.  I'd been to see two rowing friends in the show 'Oklahoma' and I was star struck, entranced, totally hooked.  I joined the Merrymaker the following week and have been singing and performing on stage ever since.  Performing musicals and singing and acting have been central to my life.  It was how I met my wife, a stunning ballerina and mother of our two fine sons.  I had no idea all those years ago that the friends I made then would become so dear to me, and none more so than Candy.  She and I, both in our teens, had a fling way back then and I remember clearly one exciting evening when two other Merrymaker friends, Marilyn and Frank, invited us to a party at their new home in Cove. Candy had accepted the offer of a lift from me in my 'new' car, a 1943 'sit-up-and-beg' Ford Anglia.  We set out from Candy's home in East Sheen with the rain pouring down and my windscreen wipers battling in vain to keep up with the deluge.  I'd never been to Cove before and was following my nose.  My nose let me down (not deliberately I promise), and we soon became lost in a heavily forested area.  To make matters worse my battery was fading fast and my windscreen wipers soon gave up altogether. Then the car conked out completely.  There I was, stranded in a forest with a ravishing young girl, and I didn't know what to do! When we eventually arrived at the party, close to midnight, no one would believe our story and it still raises laughs to this day amongst friends who were there to witness my embarassment.

But back to my 'unusual' lifestyle today.  In the Baltic this year I'd had more than a few uncomfotable days sailing my yacht singlehanded and on more than one occasion I'd been very happy to tie up in one harbour or another.  I was never in any real danger and heavy weather in itself has never held any fear for me. But on one stormy day I'd suffered a gear failure and getting back to harbour safely had proved a challenge.  I got to thinking that perhaps, at 70 years of age, sailing singlehanded on a yacht was not a wise or enjoyable thing to do when the weather is bad and I know of no one, myself included, who can predict the weather with any certainty.  The chances of being caught out are always threatening and my name is not Helen McArthur or Robin Knox Johnson.  Going out to sea KNOWING I'm going to be bashed to hell is no longer the fun it was 30-40 years ago when I used to ocean race in all weathers.  And in those days I sailed with a strong crew of 8 or 9 other mad but competent sailors who could and would do what it took to get us home safely if necessary.

So in September, when I returned to the UK, I decided I would spend the next few years cruising the inland waterways of Europe rather than battling through gales in the Baltic or Atlantic.  I bought a Dutch steel river cruiser, named Exclusive Lady.  It seemed appropriate somehow since all my old flames and my wife had been 'Exclusive Ladies' and here was one who wouldn't argue back or leave me high and dry if the fancy took them.  I still have to sail Toytown, my sailing yacht, back from the Baltic to the UK to sell her next year, but with one or two crew that should be an enjoyable trip if we choose our weather windows with care.

I am now living on Exclusive Lady at Bray near Maidenhead and, apart from being exceedingly cold when the temperature drops to zero or below, it is very comfortable.  The other day the electricity supply in the marina was down and Mother Nature made the most of the opportunity to persuade me to go out and buy blankets and sliipers etc for when I sit watching telly in the evenings.  But once between the sheets I sleep well, something I always seem to do when afloat.  Except, that is, when I spent three nights on a square rigger a couple of years ago when I crewed on a trip from Southampton to Dublin.  But it was a great experience, especially going up the mainmast to the top crosstrees whilst at sea.  As suntanned as I was my knuckles turned white so hard was I hanging on to the yards!  

My plan, at the moment, is to take Exclusive Lady to France next spring and start my European cruising.  But the future is not carved in stone and I remain flexible in outlook and prepared to go where life takes me over the next few years.  That's always been my way and I'm too old to change now!

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