Category: Yarns
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AS WE CELEBRATE THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, LET’S DISCUSS PIRATE QUEENS: NASSAU’S LEGENDARY FEMALE BUCCANEERS The swashbuckling tale of feminist icons Anne Bonny and Mary Read and their search for independence in the azure seas of the Bahamas The power of a successful movie franchise is demonstrated by the impossibility of saying the word “pirates” without…
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This “Sailing versus golf” piece is a medley assembled and blended by our guest editor Terry Birles from different authors who’ve written on the subject with an obvious bias towards sailing…. Many of history’s most legendary figures were sailors, starting with Jonah (you know, the poor fellow who got swallowed by that whale) and spanning…
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I’ve often thought that when it comes to drinking toasts there’s invariably something sentimental about them. “Well, obviously,” I hear you say, as they’re usually conceived with an arm around a best friend and a bellyful of wine. Being a keen amateur enthusiast in the life of libation, I’ve collected in my head (but first…
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So we can assume, possibly due to midlife crisis or being on the run, that you’ve applied to be a guest crew on board a Tall Ship. You will step aboard and be shown to your cabin. This move alone will instil a sense of mistrust and resentment throughout the crew who sleep in the…
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It is a little-known fact that the jetski, like the tractor and the iron lung, was invented by Stalin – though on closer inspection the roots of these machines in a Communist dictatorship are easily discernible. Jetniks, as their riders were originally called, claimed that access to the seas was free to all, and that…
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Noel’s flood is a joke by Geoffrey Chaucer in his Miller’s Tale – part of the Canterbury set. It’s invented by the young wife of an older carpenter, and her would-be lodger lover to persuade him to set up barrels hanging from his roof rafters into which they should climb at night, to be sure…
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The triumph of the sails over the horse: a yachtsman’ personal view on Yachting versus Polo. In the grand tapestry of leisure activities reserved for the elite, two pastimes stand out as symbols of affluence, grandeur, and, most importantly, an inflated sense of superiority over the masses: yachting and polo. Both sports are closely associated…