Congratulations, Ellen MacArthur!
[BBC News] [Team Ellen]
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![]() Good swell off Beachy Head, 1966 (from rented Caravelle, with Humphrey Rang) |
![]() Mehitabel 1 (21 ft sloop) Middelburg Holland, 1967(?) |
![]() Piefleet Creek, Isle of Wight, (on Mehitabel 1) 1967 |
![]() Mehitabel I getting keel fixed after bumping underwater wall off Zeebruge, 1967. |
![]() Approaching the gap between Jethou and the Grand Faucconniere rock, in Mehitabel I, 1969. Jethou is a small island near Herm, in the Channel Islands |
![]() A tired gull stops for a rest on Mehitabel I, on a cruise from River Medway to Ostend, 1968. |
![]() Cherokee (Yale aviation), on which I first learned to fly in New Haven, CT., 1971. |
![]() Cessna 150 at Vancouver International airport (1974). Rented from Boeing Field, Seattle, and flown to small airstrip on Friday Harbor island, then to Canada. |
![]() Mount Rainer, from Boeing Field, Seattle. |
![]() Needles rocks and lighthouse (west end of the Isle of Wight), taken from Cessna 150 while flying solo. About 1974. |
![]() First car (Mercedes 190SL), 1969, in New Forest. |
![]() The 190SL again. |
![]() Another sort of sailing (1972): QE2 New York to Southampton. |
![]() QE2 entering Cherbourg. |
![]() Launch of Mehitabel II, Lowestoft, 1973, with Humphrey Rang |
![]() Eating on board Mehitabel II, in St Peter Port Harbour, Guernsey |
![]() View from Mehitabel II, of waves breaking over harbour wall in Alderney, 1976. The forecast said Force 11, but we made it into Alderney just in time, well-reefed. |
![]() Peaceful mooring in Beaulieu River, 1981 (Margaret Colquhoun) |
> ![]() Mehitabel II at anchor in Lulworth Cove, Dorset. |
![]() Mehitabel II somewhere in the English Channel |
![]() Mehitabel II in the Solent (with DC and MAC) 27 June, 1979 |
![]() Mehitabel II in the Solent (with DC and MAC) |
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![]() Circus (of sorts) came to Lezardrieux while we waited for rudder to be repaired. Margaret rode a llama round the ring. |
![]() Back to sailing, on Ranworth Broad, 1994. Margaret, and Andrew in dinghy. | ![]() Sailing on Oulton Broad, 1994. |
![]() The ultimate retail therapy, Smart Roadster, bought in April 2005 (relief from election blogging) |
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It is now almost 40 years since I bought Mehitabel I, but she is alive and well, sailing in the Firth of Forth. Thanks to Google I had an email out of the blue from her current owner, Dr. Philip Bailey (an inorganic chemist from the University of Edinburgh, who bought her from a fireman in 2003, and reburbished her. I have no idea where she was between 1979 and 2001. Boats last longer than cars (and are a lot more fun). Here are two pictures he sent to me.
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My boats were named after Mehitabel, the feline free spirit immortalised in free verse by her Boswell, the cockroach, Archy, who had the soul of a vers libre poet, but was unable to reach the shift key.
You can find text of some of the poems at Archy & Mehitabel, by Don Marquis
Here is a taste.
the song of mehitabelBy Don Marquis, in "archy and mehitabel," 1927 this is the song of mehitabel i have had my ups and downs do you think that i would change - - boss sometimes I think |
Walks in the Chiltern Hills, west of London. The blue paths have been done at least once, and we are beginning to get short of new ones.
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![]() What's in the box? |
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![]() Fuller's cylindrical slide rule, made in 1951. The single logarithmic scale is 500 inches (12.7 m) long |
![]() George Fuller was at UCL 1868 – 1873. His slide rule was in the market from 1895 to 1972 |
This antique picture was recently found at the bottom of a drawer by a colleague at UCL. It was probably taken soon after I arrived at UCL in 1964 (age 28). And I have a tie!