HANGING ON

UPSIDE DOWN IN A SMALL CATAMARAN IN A NORTH SEA STORM, JOHN PASSMORE DISTRACTED HIMSELF BY FOCUSSING ON THE STORY

- JOHN PASSMORE

John Passmore is a man unafraid to move with the times. A professional journalist with a distinguished newspaper career, he now hosts a powerful online presence in the guise of his channel oldmansailing.com. The quote at the beginning of his recent book by the same name is from Søren Kirkegaard and it sums up his attitude. ‘Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forwards.

When Covid lockdown hit, instead of hunkering down in his office, John, now in his 70s, got on his boat and went to sea. Forty-two days and 3,629 miles later, he was on national radio advising the rest of us about how to live the dream.

In this extract from Old Man Sailing, John re-lives the capsize of an earlier boat as he shares a unique description of what goes through a thinking man’s mind while perched on the bottom – or is it the top? – of his inverted Heavenly Twins catamaran, Lottie Warren, in a North Sea storm. The book is a great read from a professional storyteller who always sees the funny side, even when laughs must have been hard to find.

Standing at the wheel, I watched the log hit 13 knots – then 16. Looking astern, two white wakes stretched out with the tires kicking up plumes of spray, and then, behind them, the crest of the wave. It was high, of course, but it was a long way behind so it didn’t seem particularly threatening. Meanwhile, the little boat continued to track dead straight downwind. I engaged the autopilot, and she continued to thunder along.