Yacht Mollymawk

Welcome aboard!
Welkom aan boord!
¡Bienvenido abordo!

Mollymawk is a fifty foot steel ketch built, by her crew, in South Africa - and in Namibia, St Helena, the Cape Verdes, and Spain…

She was named for the black-browed albatrosses which accompanied us on our earlier, ill-fated voyage to the Southern Ocean. Full details of that misadventure can be found in the forthcoming book, A Family Outing in the Atlantic.

Mollymawk is bigger and stronger than our previous yacht and will therefore be better able to cope with whatever the Roaring Forties and the Frightening Fifties throw at us. And, hopefully, we’ll have finished building her before we get that far south.

This website is an online scrapbook in which we report on our travels and adventures. It works in the same way as your email inbox, or as any other news website, with the articles piling up on top of one another chronologically. The oldest ones will be at the bottom of the list. To find the most recent contributions click on Latest Articles. The photos can be enlarged by clicking on them. To get back to the text click again on the picture. Please note that the writings, photographs and entire content are subject to copyright. If you want permission to reproduce something, please get in touch.

Introducing The Crew

Captain and Chief Engineer
Nick Schinas

Admiral
Jill Dickin Schinas

Chief Communications Officer
Caesar

Ship’s Mermaid and Wannabe Head Chef-come-Admiral
Xoë Joanna

Ship’s Naturalist
Roxanne

Ship’s Dog
Poppy

Ship’s Cat
Truco

Feathered Friends
Romulus and Remus

Bearing in mind the nature of our life style, it probably goes without saying that Caesar, Xoë, and Roxanne are all home-schooled. Caesar once spent about two weeks at a school in St Helena, in the South Atlantic. Xoë has sampled both the English school curriculum as applied in St Helena and that of a Spanish school. Two weeks of each was quite sufficient to enable her to form an opinion of The System. Based on the reports received from her elders and betters, Roxanne has decided that she will keep right away from formal education.

Despite the fact that none of them has been to school the kids all seem to do okay - as this website surely demonstrates. It was built by Caesar, whose skills with the computer are already legendary amongst family and friends. Caesar is entirely self-taught in this arena. He has had to be, because his shipmates hardly know a server from an ISP, or a file from a folder. (In fact, to be honest, the senior officers couldn’t tell you what any of those four words mean, in the context of a computer.)

Rummage around the site and you’ll find evidence, too, of Xoë’s literary leanings and Roxanne’s ability to make the insect world sound delightful. This website takes over from the children’s earlier production: The Mollymawk Times. If you would feel more comfortable sitting in your easy chair, with the “magazine” in your lap, feel free to print out a copy. Just don’t print it out in anybody else’s magazine - or we’ll send the ship’s cat round with instructions to claw out your crocuses and widdle in your daffs.

If you would like to know more about home-schooling, start with the Sea School article, penned by our illustrious Admiral.