Busby Berkeley – Hollywood film director and choreographer famous for complex production numbers using a large cast of showgirls.
Chum – a weight used to hold a drogue under water as the boat drags it along.
Currency – during this period the currency exchange was roughly $US1.50 to £1Sterling. Europe had not yet converted to the Euro and still retained its individual currencies.
Davits – two small hoists to lift and hold a dinghy, usually at a boat’s stern.
Gash bag – all refuse (gash) on board is bagged and taken ashore for appropriate disposal.
Gelcoat – the hard shiny outer layer covering the fibreglass from which the boat is made.
Genoa – the large sail in front of our mast.
Gybe – when the boom swings rapidly from one side of a boat to the other.
Hard – short for hard standing, when a boat is lifted out of the water to allow work to be done on its hull.
Knot – one knot equals a nautical mile covered in one hour and is roughly equivalent to 1.15mph.
Lazy line – when a boat is berthed bows-on, it is held off the quay or pontoon by a lazy line, a mooring rope which is fixed to the seabed at one end and tied to the boat’s stern cleat at the other.
Line (short for shore line or mooring line) – the rope used to tie a boat to the shore. Also called a warp.
Log – (1) a speedometer.
(2) a manual record which in our case includes location, direction, weather and events.
Main sail – the large sail behind the mast.
Navtex – receiver for international weather forecasts in English, either on a screen or as a print out.
Outhaul – rope used to haul out a sail.
Painter – rope to tie up a dinghy.
Phoenicians – formidable sailors and traders of the first and second millennium bc whose homeland was a narrow strip of land along the eastern Mediterranean coast – now Lebanon plus parts of Syria and Israel, and the biblical cities of Sidon and Tyre.
Pitch poling – when a boat capsizes stern over bow rather than by rolling over sideways.
Port – left-hand side of vessel looking forward.
Red ensign – the official flag for British Merchant Navy ships and British leisure boats. It has a red ground with the Union Flag in the top left-hand corner.
RIB – rigid inflatable boat; a high-speed rubber dinghy with a rigid fibreglass bottom.
Sheets – ropes used to control a sail.
Shore line – see Lines above.
Shrouds – multi-strand, stainless-steel wires which hold the mast in place.
Starboard – right-hand side of vessel looking forward.
Squall – sudden increase in wind-speed, often accompanied by brief but heavy precipitation.
Warp – see Lines above.
By the Same Author
Dolphins Under My Bed
ISBN 978-1-4081-3288-3
At a time when their contemporaries already had one eye focused on their pension, and conscious that age or ill health could prevent them sailing away to warmer climes, Sandra and David Clayton left the world of work behind to grasp their dream. Dolphins Under My Bed is Sandra’s charming account of the first stage of a journey that will become the adventure of a lifetime.
‘A “sticky book”. I couldn’t put it down’
Cruising Magazine
‘I can’t emphasize enough how well Clayton writes – although there are no photos, her prose is so vivid that the reader is left with indelible images’
Living Aboard
‘A most charming read’
The Lifeboat
Published by Adlard Coles Nautical
an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP
www.adlardcoles.com
Copyright © Sandra Clayton 2011
This electronic edition published in 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published by Adlard Coles Nautical in 2012
First published 2012 by
A & C Black
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP
www.acblack.com
All rights reserved You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages
The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
eISBN 9781408159361
Note: while all reasonable care has been taken in the publication of this book, the publisher takes no responsibility for the use of the methods or products described in the book.
Visit www.acblack.com to find out more about our authors and their books You will find extracts, author interviews, author events and you can sign up for newsletters to be the first to hear about our latest releases and special offers
Turtles in Our Wake Page 21