Welcome Aboard! •
Welkom Aan Boord! •
¡Bienvenido Abordo!
The dinghy drawn up on the beach alongside ours is possibly the most decrepit yachting tender that I have ever seen – and I’ve come across quite a few wooden crates and soggy pneumatics in my time. As a rule, Mollymawk‘s vintage Avon is pretty much the tattiest thing in the anchorage, but this lumpen object leaves me awed. It appears to have begun its life as a plywood dory but all trace of wood is now engulfed by a…
The New York Times recently nominated Rio de Janeiro as the best place in the world. The best place for what? Well, apparently they didn’t specify. So far as we yotties are concerned it isn’t the best, by any means – it isn’t even the best place in Brazil – but it does have a certain something special. And, of course, it does have the world’s most famous and extravagant carnival. It so happened that Mollymawk was anchored little more…
It was the last night of Brazil’s four-day Carnival celebration. Indeed, it was the day itself – it was Mardi-Gras, or Shrove Tuesday as we know it in England – and so we planned to go ashore and watch the revellers. According to the official programme the action was supposed to begin at eight, but we know the score well enough by now to understand that this was just someone’s fantasy; just a statement of what-ought-to-be rather than of genuine…
The tide is low. The sun having scarcely hauled itself up over the rim of the world, the sand is still damp; damp, and noisy, too. Perhaps the continual high-pitched popping is the sound of the water ebbing amongst the individual grains which make up the beach. Perhaps… but I like to think that it is made by some of the millions of tiny creatures for whom this shoal is the known world. Down there, under my feet, is another…
Having spent quite bit of time in Spain, amongst people who live to party and who love noise, colour, and razamatazz, we’ve seen plenty of firework displays. Indeed, we used to say that we’d seen enough pyrotechnic extravaganzas to last a lifetime. One of the country’s most spectacular demonstrations is the week-long Fiesta de San Juan, celebrated annually in Alicante. Essentially, it consists of around 80 huge bonfires, built in the streets, plus a week-long competition between the nation’s fireworks…