Yacht Mollymawk

Roxanne is back again, with something new for you to read:
I’ve been very busy lately. I have been building a wall around the edge of my dead hamster’s grave. My hamster - Chicita - died a year ago. And I’ve only just got round to building the wall round her grave… I’ve been planting seeds round the grave, mostly from the hamster’s food. (A year - and I haven’t got round to throwing away the hamsters food!) And I’ve been watering the grave, and I’ve been attempting to weed out the weakest seeds so that the strongest can have room to grow. And I’ve also been tidying my cabin. And I’ve been non-stop cleaning my animal’s cages - a bit like cleaning the Forth bridge - by the time you have done the last one the first needs doing again! And, of course, when I do find a second to spare, as likely as not - or actually a lot more likely than not - I find that the internet is off. Now I suppose we can get on with the story… Continue Reading…

Happy Christmas everyone! We’ve been so frantically busy trying (and failing) to get the boat ready to leave Spain before Christmas that we haven’t even had time to go to the post office this year - so this is all you’re getting! Feel free to print it out and sign it “Love from the Mollymawks“. Continue Reading…

The Ship’s Naturalist has been very busy these past few weeks. She has at least two articles in the pipeline, but transferring her observations from the Nature Diary to the computer is a long, slow process. In the meantime, we thought you might enjoy a little nature quiz. Continue Reading…

Once upon a time… Combining her talent for studying wildlife with that of the raconteur, Roxanne has written a story. It isn’t a fairy tale, and although we will never really know how the adventure began the ending, at least, is a true story.

Continue Reading…

Over the course of the past three years we have made several forays into the interior and have had plenty of opportunity to visit some of the castles with which Spain is littered. In this article, Xoë describes a few of these fascinating monuments and reaches back in time to trace their origin and purpose. Continue Reading…

How can you holiday and see the world on the cheap? Answer: as a backpacker. But how can you do that same thing with three kids and a dog in tow? That’s what the boat is all about. With a boat you can travel, in your own home, to the far corners of the globe. However, there are times when a boat can be very restrictive. You can travel the seven seas, but when it comes to terra firma you can only get at the edges. When you want to travel and live cheaply on the inside of a country then you need the terrestrial equivalent of a cruising yacht: you need a camper van, or motorhome. Continue Reading…

When you live on a cruising yacht the world is your oyster - but it’s an oyster which comes without any dressing. Liveaboard yotties, drifting about on the seven seas, have to do without many of the things that Westerners generally take for granted: there is no hot and cold running water out here - not aboard our boat, anyway - and there is no national grid to provide our electricity. We also do without television, the Daily Mail, postal deliveries, and baths. And our children do without school. People who choose this lifestyle seldom have trouble managing without the frills - but school hardly fits into that category. The parents of a liveaboard, itinerant school-aged child have to find some other way of imparting to him the accumulated wisdom of the world - or else, to quote the late Bing Crosby, he may grow up to be a mule. Continue Reading…

The final episode of Roxanne’s wildlife trilogy is devoted to the creatures which many of us overlook or regard with fear and loathing: the creepy-crawlies.

Continue Reading…

In the second instalment of her wildlife series, Roxanne introduces us to her feathered friends. Continue Reading…

During the past couple of years Mollymawk has been based in the Mar Menor. It’s not the most attractive or exciting place in the world, but the Ship’s Naturalist has found plenty here to interest her. In this three part series she begins by telling us about the life which lurks in the water. Continue Reading…