No, the bilge hasn’t flooded, and no, we haven’t been boarded by Yorkshire canal pirates! We’ve had our heads down working on our cruising guide, commissioned by Bloomsbury, and we can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Liz has been doing the bulk of the work and has been at her desk so long that her knees have ceased to function. I’ve been working on the images but stepped in to help write the chapters on boat maintenance, anchoring and navigation.
Kill Your Darlings
Did you know Liz used to run a writing club? With many articles published, she learned the importance of editing ruthlessly—removing even well-written lines that don’t serve the story: killing your darlings. Our first draft topped 100,000 words, but our target is 60,000. So, last week was filled with cutting out pages of text.
More In-depth Cruising Articles
It may be frustrating to set this work aside, but we now have essays that could become articles or even books. We’ll share some on followtheboat.com, so nothing has gone to waste. This has also been a valuable learning experience; I’d forgotten about the triangle of velocities and the meaning of blue smoke in the exhaust!
2,000 Cruising Photos
My chief task has been pulling together images to accompany the text. The process of combing through tens of thousands of photographs from our journeys has been overwhelming—not because it is difficult, but because each photo takes me back to a specific time, place, and experience. Reliving our adventures through these images is quite emotional. On the one hand, there’s a part of me that wants to go back and do it all again. Yet, as I move to the boat maintenance chapter, I’m reminded of all the heartache that came with it. Cruising really is fixing boats in exotic locations! Now I have to decide which of the 2,000 short-listed photographs make it into the book.
Thanks To The Contributors
One thing that has been helping Liz pull everything together is the stories submitted by other sailors. We didn’t want the book to be just about us, and we chose to steer away from YouTubers and influencers. Instead, Liz approached real-world liveaboard cruisers we have met on our journeys and asked for their stories. As a result, she received an amazing response and has been using their lessons learned throughout the guide.
Thanks To Our Supporters
We should finish by giving a shout-out to our Patreons and FTBMates, who have continued to support us throughout this quiet period. We promise we will make it up to you once the book has been put to bed. At the very least, we will have a ton of photos to upload to our high-res image library for you to download.
If you like our content and would like to support us, we will give you ad-free access to our videos before they go live to the public, discounts in our shop, access to Jamie’s iconic full-res photographs, and supporter-only blog posts. Click our ugly mugs for more info!
