Author name: Jamie Furlong

Been a liveaboard since 2005, spending first few years living in Turkey. Started sailing a few years before when I joined my father on his retirement present we got for him: a sailing course across the North Sea! Been writing about every single trip, both on sea and on land, since that day. Take photography seriously but miss my decks.

Fly Me To The Moon

• Podcasts

A happy new year to you! We celebrate the arrival of 2010 with a bunch of new podcasts, which we’ve titled ‘Through The Porthole’. (For those who had previous problems streaming their podcast we have improved the podcast media player.) They are a series of informal interviews with the Vasco Da Gama rally participants but to maintain interest amongst you non-sailors out there we’ve made a point of not talking about sailing; instead we find out a bit more about the people taking part. You’ll soon discover from this series that these people are many and varied, each with a story to tell. We start off with a fascinating man with an equally fascinating life story…

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Ellen and Hilary: 21st Century Heroines

• observation

Until I was 33 I never had any heroes. I’ll admit I did idolise The Six Million Dollar Man when I was seven, but that was because he looked like my dad, or so I thought. Apart from The Bionic Man I was never one for hero-worship.

In 2003 I set sail across The Bay of Biscay. I began the journey armed with horror stories of this treacherous sea and so to ease my way across this 300 mile stretch of water I began reading Ellen MacArthur’s autobiography, “Taking On The World”. Reading about the fastest woman ever to circumnavigate the globe, on her own, whilst I motored across what turned out to be a flat calm mill-pond made for very inspirational reading…

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Snorkeling With Me Dad

• Log

the fact that there were some wonderful memories taking Dad snorkeling in the Red Sea is a bonus! This was a simple downwind sail of around 12 miles due south of Hurghada, a case of dropping the hook and spending a very memorable few days at anchor.

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Crossing Shipping Lanes in a Force 7

• Podcasts

This is the second of two 20 minute podcasts recorded as we transited out from the canal and into the Gulf of Suez. If you’ve ever wondered what a Beaufort Force Seven (gusting eight) is like, we can now tell you. We have the underpants to prove it. That cargo ship approaching the side of our boat didn’t help but we made it across from the Sinai back to the west coast of the Red Sea and eventually into Hurghada.

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Cruising Chute Chaos

• Log

After a great sail we found ourselves in a little natural harbour and, as a reward for conning us in to the tricky entrance, we invited ourselves on board Roam II to finish off the tuna. I diced it and Terry and Liz knocked up a real treat using a secret, magic ingredient of ginger and…well, I can’t tell you otherwise it wouldn’t be a secret, magic ingredient. Believe me though, it was the best tuna dinner and satisfied six very hungry tums. Millie still had a head and a tail to work her way through too.

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Our First Anchorage In The Red Sea!

• Log

On this trip we learned a very important lesson: that the best bit of equipment on the boat is ones eyes. Twice we were passed by local fishing vessels that did not appear on the AIS system, something that we had almost started taking for granted. Whilst they passed we were also navigating our way past coral on our starboard side (we were sailing in just 10m of water) and oil platforms on our port. The scary thing is that this was just a taster of what is to come. I’ve just planned our passage for tomorrow and it takes us into an oilfield. This oilfield…

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Marina Wadiel Dome: Comedy Fun House

• Log

Once off the boat one then had to contend with the comedy pontoon, something taken straight out of the Fun House! Remember the moving staircase right by the Hall of Mirrors? That was our pontoon! As one walked down the pontoon so it tipped and dipped from side to side, and then there were the warps (lines) tied to the large motor boats that one had to climb over, further complicating the trip ashore.

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The Suez Canal Part 2

• Podcasts

The is the second podcast recorded whilst transiting the Suez Canal aboard Esper. In this episode we leave Ismalia with a new, quieter pilot and make our way towards Port Suez. We encounter some fishermen in the Bitter Lakes, which enrages our normally subdued pilot, and Ian of ‘Rhumb Do’ suggests lamb chops for dinner. It’s not what it seems…

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