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Monthly Archives: July 2010
Followtheboat Published In ‘Sailing Today’
The first of four articles by followtheboat appears in September’s edition of ‘Sailing Today’, which is available in the shops today! This is the first story that covers the Vasco da Gama rally from Turkey to India. It was written by myself and is accompanied by Jamie’s photographs.
Of course we are very excited about this! It’s a six-page feature and will be rolled out over four editions. This one covers the first part of the rally from Turkey to Egypt. Take a look at the link for more info…
Pirate Alley: Towing The Line
The next part of our Pirate Alley excursion is quite unbelievable as we encounter three major problems within the same night! We’ve split the podcasts up and in the next couple of episodes we have a collision, more fishing net problems and you’ll also hear how one boat starts taking in water. Today’s episode, however, deals with the minor issue of a boat breaking down in the middle of nowhere!
Water Maker: Purchase, Installation & Usage Considerations
A water maker is an expensive and difficult purchase with more than the cost to be considered. In this essay we discuss the decision-making process involved in a water maker purchase. Also we examine thoughts on installation and we provide an insight into how it is used on board. We conclude with some related issues and pros and cons. We hope that this helps anyone looking to purchase a watermaker for their boat and we encourage watermaker owners to add their own comments at the bottom of the page.
Pirate Alley: Birthday Close Encounters
Pirate Alley: Jamie’s 40th birthday. No partying for him though as we contend with disfunctional alternators and two suspicious fishing dows. Could they be pirates? And if so, what chance do we have of reinforcing our safty in numbers strategy if Esper’s group is all over the place?
I Have Wet Pants
You’ll be pleased to know I own about 15 pairs of underpants. That’s enough to avoid doing any washing for two weeks, four if I turn them inside out. Being the new-age man that I am I do my own washing, which is a pain in the ass since it has to be done by hand. Since the marina refuses to provide any kind of laundry service I have to undertake this task regularly.
Followtheboat Wins Telegraph Travel Piece
Well, well, well. Whilst I’ve been busy editing my photographs it seems someone has been secretly submitting her travel writing to the upper echelons of the world of journalism. Clearly setting her sights far higher than the sensationalist tabloid sailing blog she usually writes for, Liz has had her hard work recognised by The Daily Telegraph.
“I am delighted to tell you that your article about sailing has been chosen as the winner in this week’s competition”, Michael Kerr, travel dept editor, said in an email. “Thanks for a lovely little piece”.
Pirate Alley: Night Diving
The hilarious departure from Port Aden raises our spirits as we begin our journey into Pirate Alley. Within two hours disaster strikes as one of the boats runs into a fishing net. In the dark.
This collective of boats isn’t called a rally for nothing. Listen to the boats rallying together to get us through the first of many hurdles lying ahead
Don’t Talk. Eat!
“…that and a threesome with two lesbians”, smiled my friend Cillian as we sat in Hotel Ceylon, tidying up a delicious mushroom masala.
“Hmmm, I don’t know”, I replied. “I still think food comes out on tops”.
We were discussing the merits of food, eating and dining out. We were pretty much in agreement that the greatest pleasure in life was food.
“Did I mention that they were Swedish?”, Cillian added. OK, second greatest pleasure.
Daily Telegraph Shortlists Followtheboat Snap
He’s only gone and won again! OK, so he didn’t win first prize, but Jamie’s photograph of a fossilized coral outcrop in Freedom Bay, Eritrea, was short-listed in this week’s “Big Picture” competition in the Daily Telegraph.
Dancing Our Way Out Of Yemen
The day before we left Aden we were invited to another leaving do put on by Colonel Mohammed the Coast guard-cum-port police-cum-general bigwig.
We were thrilled to find that they had invited a group of ten young fishermen who were dancing to a live band, performing traditional dance. They then invited the rally participants to join them and Jamie couldn’t resist busting out his moves. One of the coastguards very kindly gave us a video clip of this momentous ocassion, telling us that this was the first and only time an English man has danced in routine with Yemeni fishermen! You can see the clip on the website.
After the dance we polled some of the rally participants about their thoughts on the next leg of the trip, which takes us through Pirate Alley.
In this podcast we also got to chat to a Yemeni woman, covered head to foot in black with just her eyes visible. Her English is excellent and makes for a great little interview.
Crazy Place: The Podcast!
In recent months Yemen’s economic and social problems have been well documented but the most evident problem to the visiting tourist isn’t covered by the news.
It is ‘gat’, also pronounced ‘cat’ and spelled ‘QAT’ which is a legal drug openly available and openly consumed throughout the country. It is a growing concern as more and more of the population spend their earnings on this opiate. Our taxi driver, small-time tour operator and all-round nice bloke Selim takes Cilian of ‘Cobble’, Robbie of ‘Rhumb Do’ and Jamie on a tour of Aden.
He constantly refers to ‘Crazy Place’ which, we eventually find out in this podcast, is the Gat den. This covered market, with men selling the drug from wrought iron beds or from the back of their pick-up trucks, truly is a crazy place.