Tree of the fruit of good and evil

Why we are no longer cooking with gas

- Sam Llewellyn

Cooking on my ketch used to be a delight - better, in fact, than cooking at home. The stove was a beauty, made by Taylor's long ago. The rings burned briskly. The oven was perfect, and the grill wafted toast aromas into the cockpit as you listened to the eider ducks doing Frankie Howerd imitations under the paradise cliffs of Kintyre.

But there was trouble in Eden, for lo, the Tree of Knowledge was bearing fruit. Being human, we pulled the fruit from the tree and took a large bite. Which basically means we started to worry about gas.

The Tree of Knowledge in this particular case took the form of a sister ship of Dahlia's whose gas system a year or two ago began quietly exhaling into the bilges. When the unfortunate owner attempted to start his engine the whole lot went up, blowing the coachroof off the aft cabin (happily leaving the skipper unscathed).

The boat was bought for a pound by the resourceful Max Liberson, occasionally of this parish, who rebuilt the blown-up bits and set off for the West Indies. He is returning now, and as I write these words is northwest of the Azores, going well, and cooking on twin antique Primus stoves, fuelled by nice safe paraffin.