In August Tim chartered Spirit, a 38ft catamaran from the UKSA in Cowes. Retirement looms for him and maybe  his partner Anne would prefer a stable catamaran rather than sailing into the sunset on her ear. It was a fabulous weekend. The wind was gusting F9 on Saturday, there were big beam seas but it calmed down and I sailed into places only previously visited by road:the Beaulieu River, Newtown and Emsworth in Chichester Harbour. I don’t know what Anne thought about the boat and I’m not sure I’ve made up my mind.

Ostar 2009. Every four years since 1960 single handed sailor have gathered in Plymouth to race across the Atlantic to Newport, Rhode Island USA. The first was for a half crown bet made in the bar of the Royal Western Yacht Club between Blondie Haslar and Sir Francis Chichester. This year Jerry Freeman was on the start line and as I write is 5 days across with about another 15 to go. Mary Falk let Jerry take her boat as she had broken her leg skiing. The photos show Jerry after the start in Plymouth Sound.

The Norwich and District Photographic Society is one of the oldest in the country and I joined in 2008. Every year there is the Photographer of the Year Competition and this year I entered. Each of the 4 rounds has a theme and everyone enters 2 images for each. The 2009 themes were film titles, proverbs, emotions and an open section. After the precise rules in sport I found trying to guess the judges preferences difficult but I finished 6th.

The Artemis Transat Race 2008 started in Plymouth and finished in Boston USA. All the boats are raced single handed and at speeds that would scare the daylights out of me. Three English girls took on the best of the French sailors with Dee Caffari and Samantha Davis racing 60 footers and Miranda Merron in a 40 footer. I took these photos from a RIB chasing the fleet out of Plymouth-among the most exhilarating things I’ve ever done.

Living in San Francisco for a couple of months gives time to walk, travel on the Muni and start to feel like a local rather than a tourist. Even so, most of these photographs feature the iconic features of the city but taken from a different perspective. Maybe it comes from me having been a train spotter but I found the streetcars fascinating. Yes the cablecars are the well known means of transport in San Francisco but the street cars give a real flavour of the time and place of their origins. See the link to find out more.

Salmon fishing on the banks of the river Tweed at Berwick circa 1967. Northumberland were hosting the National Youth Sailing Championships and I was teaching sailing in the county and so volunteered to help. One evening walking along the river bank this group of men were netting salmon as they returned to the river from the Atlantic. The photographs were printed in my darkroom that was set up in the garage.

In the northern hemisphere winter of 2006/2007 Liz and I flew off round the world to see our grandchildren. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in San Francisco with Anna and Tomas and after a little rest and recuperation in Hawaia we had two weeks in a campervan in South Island New Zealand. This section has photographs from that trip. After the van was returned we flew from Christchurch to Sydney to see Lizzie and meet Harriet for the first time.

Two weeks before Easter 2007 five of us left Ipswich in Filao bound for St Katherine’s Dock in London. The Five in a Boat were Tim, Guy, John, Steve and myself. A very cold northerly force 7 blew us quickly down to the Medway and the next day an equally cold easterly blew us up the Thames in record time. Guy’s wife, Becky, and their two children Molly and Thomas were standing at the lock to wave us in.

During June 2007 we set off to move Compromis from the Mediterranean, up the mighty Rhone to Lyon. Peter sailed with me from near Nice to the mouth of the river and then Mike took over for the trip up the river. The mast was taken down in Port Napoleon to be taken by lorry to Le Havre but a change of plan means it is going all the way to Holland. The Rhone lived up to its reputation with adverse currents up briefly to 5kt but we covered the 320km from Port St Louis to Lyon in just over 5 days.

Liz, Graham and I went back to Lyon to continue the journey up the Saone towards the Netherlands. The current was still against us but it is a more gentle river than the Rhone and the further north we went the stream became slacker, the river narrower and the countyside very rural. Tunnels were a new experience and so was mooring to stakes driven into the bank but it was a gentle part of the journey and very beautiful.

The Canal des Vosges starts in Corre and travels the 130km to Nancy and has 91 locks and the second highest summit level in France. There are some villages en route but largely you are on your own. Even in late July there were very few other boats and we didn’t meet a single perniche. Had we done so in the narrower sections I didn’t have a plan B. It is the stuff of travel books and well worth the doing.

All the locks were down, the current was with us, the river was wide and deep plus the weather was fine. Cruising down the Moselle is gentle and charming but bring your own wine as the sweet moselle wine was to none of our tastes. There are large barges but not enough to cause problems

The waters of the Rhine were turbulent for the first few kilometres after the confluence maybe as a result of the two mighty rivers colliding. A 3kt current was carrying us toward the Netherlands and there were no locks in the way but there was a lot of big barge traffic. Tankers, container vessels and aggregate bargers all came in droves and the ones with blue boards out wanted to pass starboard to starboard. There are photographs of Hindeloopen--Compromis’ home in the Netherlands.