Why did this captain give his boat the name ‘Fear Not 2’? And what happened to ‘Fear Not 1’? And why is a boat always referred to as ‘she’? These questions always pop up when seeing a fishing boat on the water or in harbours.

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Watercolour of a small, blue Scotish fishing boat, the Girl Josie. In a moody landscape just after the rain has stoped

It was the most dreich of dreich days. In the fifty shades of rain common to Scotland, this rain curtain had droplets thicker than mist but with the same density of mist. Weather to stay in the tent for a day. ‘Hello, good morning.’ We hear someone say. Alexander opened up the tent. Outside our…

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‘Our thinking is like a boat on the water, pushed along by the waves and influenced by the wind.’ Hazrat Inayat Khan And what happens to our thinking when the boat is on the water but there is no wind nor waves and only silence? What does it do to your mind if this happens…

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Alexander holding a rock in a heart shape

A ship is always safe at the shore, but that is not what it’s built for. — Albert Einstein or John A. Shedd. I always tell my kayaking students, jokingly, ‘the best thing about this sport is that it allows me to yell and scream at my spouse’. And it is true, a rough sea…

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Travelling by kayak involves a lot of changing from one outfit to another. Usually, I have a dry set of clothes on land and a wetsuit when paddling on the water. This means that I have to be ready to change outfits anywhere. Since it is unlikely to find changing rooms or toilets in sight,…

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Two seagull chicks on the clifs of Stroma, Orkney

I made it through the wilderness Somehow I made it through Didn’t know how lost I was Until I found…… -Madonna- It’s intriguing how some text sometimes sounds so appropriate with the experience you have. After the very first day at sea, on our own, it felt like the first bit of the lyrics of…

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