Those of you who suffer my ramblings when we are on a big ship cruise

will know that I am very partial to a lecture or two. Regent are very good at providing interesting lecturers/lectures across a whole plethora of subjects, one of the reasons we usually cruise with them. But they have some serious competition when it came to the lecture at the boat club this Saturday.

Carl and Tracey (known as T) moor their current (motor)boat at the club. Earlier this century they took seven years off to sail around the world on their rather elegant 55′ oyster sloop. On their last trip (as it turned out!) they had their young teenage daughters with them when the yacht hit a submerged iceberg in the Southern Ocean at 2am. After 12 hours it started taking on water, and at the time there didn’t appear to be any ships within 5 days of them. When the news got to the Royal Navy it dispatched HMS Clyde which was ‘on manoeuvres’ in the area, and it reached them with basically no time to spare. They were sat on the deck of a yacht full of water in Southern Ocean seas when it came into view. The lecture covered vividly the issues they faced and some of the problems they solved. See the press coverage here. And they have since written a book ‘Certain Death in the ice’.

Carl and T told this story, as they approach life, with their usual aplomb  accompanied by many photos and props and even a quiz (OK, I didn’t like the quiz bit :)). A totally absorbing few hours. They also provided a ‘Southern Ocean meal’ of pot noodles and curly wurlys (definitely a first for the club). And they asked people to dress for the Southern Ocean. Andrew and I may have got a bit carried away with the latter.