Rolling with the news at sea

A new factor in this modern age of cruising is the relationship between the rolling news cycle and crews at sea.

- LIBBY PURVES

Ashore, news is now a relentless, inescapable 24/7 battering of the brain and sympathies: sometimes the torrent of wars, politics, disasters and scandals updated on smartphones and radio news gets overwhelming. So at sea the awful temptation is to glance down at the chart table phone every half-hour in order to be up with the very, very latest. It can sometimes make you nostalgic for the times when, after the morning newspaper and perhaps a bulletin, the only fresh shocks came from an old bloke in a muffler on a city street-corner shouting 'Eeeevning Stannard!' or 'Echo, latest!'

But we go sailing with an expectation of getting away from it all and resetting the nerves. Once, you really could. My finest hour was in autumn 1974, when I got back from a last trip of the year and my housemate, packing for America, mentioned President Ford. 'No, not in America' I said. 'You mean Australia or somewhere. America is Nixon. You know, the Watergate one.' She gently put me right, and pointed out that I was clearly not yet fully prepared for what I had come to London for: a BBC news trainee interview the next morning...