Skipper’s View
A FEW YEARS BACK, after a particularly hallucinatory singlehanded trip across the English Channel, I decided I wouldn't be making another crossing: the shipping lane, the wild weather, suddenly it all seemed a bit much. However, this month I was tempted back in order to help a friend move a 22' Hillyard to St Valery sur Somme so he could enter the canal system there. I reckoned he could do with a hand given the size of the boat. Anyway, the trip was, both eventful and enjoyable but I'm not here to bore you with tales of this jaunt - perhaps I'll leave that to a later issue. No, my reasons for mentioning it are that I have received a number of letters from confused sailors wondering what on earth…