From buying a suitable yacht to negotiating 371 locks, three tunnels and travelling 1,400 miles from Fareham, Lizzy Bolan shares the highs and lows of navigating the French canals
Learning curve
Sailing singlehanded across oceans: lessons learned
Chris Ayres realised a childhood dream when he sailed from Britain to New Zealand, via Panama, in a 28ft yacht – bravely setting sail solo when crew let him down…
Face to face with UK Border Force: lessons learned
Graham Sykes has an eventful training weekend with a last-minute vessel change, Border Force scrutiny and an overheating engine
Sunk in a storm with no liferaft: lessons learned
Bruce Goodwin's ocean crossing with friends was nearing an end when they encountered a storm; the liferaft was lost, the yacht sank. Skipper Stuart Pedersen tragically died just as he…
‘Dead ahead were the bows of an unlit freighter’
Paul Dale has a harrowing near-miss with an unlit freighter at night while on a 110-mile voyage from Trinidad to the Grenadines
‘Years of shredded water impeller bits had clogged the pipe’
Martin Fuller lightens his wallet before discovering the solutions to an avoidable problem that had been building for years - shredded water impeller bits
Sailing through a storm: One man’s tale of near disaster
Eighteen months ago, I left East Anglia in my Westerly GK-29 cruiser-racer, bound for Istanbul. My progress was naturally slow at first as I had never sailed before but, by…
How a PLB saved my life when I was knocked overboard
Solo yachtsman Nigel Fox's life was saved by a PLB when he was knocked overboard by stormy seas off the north coast of Australia
‘Towing risks damage, so plan the process carefully’
Ken Endean advises 'Consider, Communicate and Connect' when towing, particularly when under sail, and reflects on lessons learned from six incidents
‘Buying my first boat taught me a hell of a lot’
From car-crash viewings to wasted journeys of hundreds of miles, Wayne Palmer shares the steep learning curve of buying his first boat