oats are my life, love and passion. You’re about to embark on the biggest adventure of my life. A present-day sailing circumnavigation on board Ocean Strider. An old girl with a modern heart.
She’s a Cobra sail boat, designed by David Feltham and produced by Cobra Yachts. A 1979, 10m, Bermudan rigged, twin keel sail boat with electric axillary engine. Nothing out of the ordinary there. The difference is that she runs on free, sustainable, clean energy produced by wind, sun and water.
From the seed that started my current quest to the present day and beyond, this is an account about my travels and why I love electric propulsion; my learning curve and how I made it work – short journeys and the huge ones – all the places I’ve been and much more.
The roots of my interest in electric propulsion come from years spent afloat in one manner or another. I’m a long term live aboard from the narrowboat fraternity and I’ve more than 30 years of experience living on boats of one kind or another.
My yearning for life living on or by the water started in 1985. I travelled to Kashmir, India and had a longer than expected stay, in a small house boat on Wallar Lake, Srinagar. One of the biggest lakes in Asia.
I constantly travelled the lake and associated rivers, on boats called Shikara’s. Small rowing boats with just one paddle. My eyes were opened to a community of people living on board boats and by the water, in houses on stilts. I came back from my travels and later sold my house, for life on the water, starting in the late 1980s.
From the day almost 37 years ago, my life changed. I was obsessed; my plan was to educate myself through all I did. Life aboard a boat travelling the world was my future. I spent more than. We kept her at Farley Quay, on the Clyde, The West Coast of Scotland. A beautiful area with breath-taking scenery. We enjoyed every minute sailing her. My miles were adding up and I soon had enough to take my RYA Yachtmaster Offshore practical, which I passed in 2010.
