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On The Way

P1090588

Looking back at my photos, I have discovered that I find boats of all shapes and sizes really fascinating.  Maybe this stems from my great grandfather’s life sailing tea clippers from the south China Seas around the world in the 1800s which fascinates me.  Or maybe it’s from my father’s early years working in the shipyards of the Tyne, or his wartime service in the Royal Navy.  But, as I can’t swim, however hard I try and however many lessons I have, boats are an unlikely interest for me to have!

My fear of deep water has several possible sources, the first being that I fell in the icy cold English Channel from a cliff when I was about 10 years old.  I vividly remember thinking as I sank into the murk, how dirty the water was ~ not at all like a swimming pool or the pictures of the ocean you saw on holiday posters at the railway station.

Secondly, where I grew up, my playground was the smoking sulphur heaps left over from the chemical factories, and the old mine workings of a very industrial Gateshead on Tyne.  I stand to be corrected but I never saw or heard of a swimming pool anywhere in the vicinity.  The Public Baths were for people to go and have a wash when they had no facilities at home as far as I knew.

Lastly, in the postwar years the River Tyne was a busy, noisy, dirty and dangerous river dotted with thriving shipyards.  It was not at all as it appears today, all cleaned up with its expensive riverside apartments, leisurely riverside walks, luxurious hotels, The Sage, The Baltic and the spectacular Winking Eye Bridge.  No, the Tyne was a marvellous, powerful river to be admired, respected and wondered at, but feared and kept away from for safety’s sake.

But as I look at my travel photos from Cornwall, Dorset and other parts of the world, there are a lot of boats that I snap on the way.

Replica of Peter the Great’s boat in Russia
River Fal boats
Model Amber ship in a shop window in Krakow, Poland
Ancient Viking longboat, belonged to a Viking King and is preserved so well because it was buried with him.
Anne and Simon in Myanmar
boat in mud at Burnham
boats on the Avon at Stratford
Boats in Gdansk, Poland
HMS Conway, my great grandfather joined this ship in 1855
fishing boat with seagulls
St Ives Harbour when the tide is out
Cruise ship stuck in the fjord in Norway
Canoes in Dorset
Dorset
Stratford on Avon

 

 

18 thoughts on “On The Way”

    • Ah then plan a trip asap! Don’t wait until it is too late. My photos bring such happy memories for me but my trips are few and far between now. Go while you are fit and well and able to enjoy yourself. JUST DO IT.

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  4. Funny, I can’t swim either yet my favorite trips are at sea, especially on tall sailing ships, namely the Star Clipper, the Star Flyer. I think a fall from the cliff would have put me off water…forever.

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    • Ooh sailing ships, especially clippers would send me OTT with excitement. I guess you wear a safety flotation jacket while on board?!? Well I hope so anyway.
      I’d love to see some of your photos and reminiscences from the trips!

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