NavList:

I sailed as a deck hand/ island guide on the Marques in the Hebrides in 1979 for three weeks and whilst she was undoubtedly hugely unsafe by modern standards we were all old enough, I was twenty six, to be able to take responsability for our own destiny and decide whether the risks were worth it.
I thought they were, still do, and regard my time on her as being one of the great adventures of my life.
Two memories will always be with me. One was being asked to take a party of guests ashore in a dingy and being sacked for refusing. The dingy was in fact just a flash moulding that had been taken from a clinker skiff for use as a prop in the making of a film ( The Beagle?) and I considered it unsuitable for crossing a bath never mind taking a bunch of green tourists ashore in hebridean waters.
Luckily the incident was watched by the late rear Admiral Sir Roddy Macdonald of Skye , an old friend of my uncle, and he countermanded my sacking saying I was just showing some sea sense. He said if I went he would go with me! Lovely man.
I also remember taking in a sail on the bowspit on a dog watch and the rotten ratline failing underneath us. Lord how we laughed. Pass the bottle. Ah Youth.
Finally I remember running the braces in the early hours of the morning with the moon blazing down. I have never been very athletic and was well out of my comfort zone. If I had fallen and died my last thought would have been that it was a risk worth taking. If youre lying there in traction, but you've been a man of action well you can take some satisfaction thinking, ach well fXXX it at least I tried!
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