On the beach

The term ‘on the beach’ used to be common parlance among sailors and essentially meant you were out of work and looking for a new ship. Major ports such as Singapore, Sydney and Rio would all have big communities of itinerant sailors who had washed up on their shores looking a berth. Those days have passed and perhaps the term is now better known because it is a Chris Rea song, although memory of that might also be – thankfully – dying now. Anyway, the nearest modern equivalent can now probably be found in Las Palmas prior to the start of the ARC, where a diverse selection of dreamers, sailors and desperadoes gather each year to secure a passage on a yacht headed to the Caribbean. Many camp on the beach just next to the marina

Perhaps, understandably, the ones left on the beach are those with limited experience. In all of my time covering the ARC (a period which, unbelievably, spans from 2010 to the present day) I have never actually met a single person who has secured a passage