Remember All of Them
Remembrance Sunday is a tough one for me. I’m no fan of the modern concept of the Nation-State. As one who enjoys the freedom of the seas, I know how artificial national boundaries can be. The historic three-nautical mile limit…
YankeeJock
Navigating faith, family & freedom, across the Atlantic.
YankeeJock
Navigating faith, family & freedom, across the Atlantic.
Read MoreRemember All of Them
Deutschland Immer Wieder
I drafted this article after I’d been in a metaphorical decompression chamber for about a week, since leaving that last ship. A little 25 Gross Ton workboat. I’d been on her for only a few days before that visit, so…
Damage Control
It has been over a month since I posted. Apologies to loyal readers expecting their weekly tot. It has simply been too difficult to write recently. Has much happened this past month? FTX fraud and collapse? Uprisings in Iran and…
Jacob’s Pilot Ladder
Apologies for the slight delay in this (last) week’s edition of the blog. I’ll owe y’all one. I have been repositioning a little workboat from the Netherlands to Germany, and we had a few issues with watertight integrity, steering, power,…
Good Morning
Good morning, all. I hope you are well. I certainly am. The kids were off school this week for their October break. For non-Scots, this is a ten-day holiday subtracted from the summer holidays, to allow the children to help…
Truss-T Up?
Apologies for the delayed article. I’m afraid I’ll be a little brief this week due to contracting a lovely little pathogen from my children and spending 13 hours in bed with a fever dream today. I’m feeling better this evening,…
Owning It
Little Green Lies No salty anecdotes for you this week, my friends. I have returned home from the sea to colder weather. Commercial duties are swapped for domestic ones, and the gloriously mundane comforts of brushing teeth, bedtime stories, and…
Lamentations for Leicester
It has been a peaceful, but rather dull week of decent weather offshore. With twelve hours on watch and a reasonable satellite internet signal, I’ve been trawling the depths of Twitter and Wikipedia. I finished In the Shadow of the…
The Sorry Darkness
My first duty this week is to thank my new friend Steven Wilkinson, of the excellent Substack Pitchfork Papers and his company Good and Prosper, for his continued support and encouragement. I’ve been following his work for some time, and…
Half Mast
Monarchy, Mortality, and Morality. I never met The Queen. Neither did most of you. But I’m willing to bet that every single one of you had some sort of emotional reaction to the news of her passing. For my part,…
The Philosophy of ‘No’
I have returned to the sea, for a three-week trip. On this occasion, I have signed on as Mate. That is second in command on this ship and entails a 12-hour night shift from 7 pm to 7 am. After…
Agapic Crumble
Busy weeks appear to be the only kind I have anymore, so I’ll try to refrain from that description in future. But this one was a doozy. I completed my two weeks of City & Guilds training plumbing, passing my…