For anyone interested in small-boat voyaging – or indeed, any sailor wanting to get seriously close to the sea itself, The Lugworm Chronicles by Ken Duxbury is a ‘must-read’. I, for one, couldn’t put it down. Ken Duxbury was born in 1923, volunteered for the Navy in World War II, then took up a commission which he held until the mid-1950s. After a four-year cruise in his 14-tonner, he founded and ran a Cornish sailing school. His book about sailing the 18ft open Drascombe Lugger Lugworm home from Greece with his wife ‘B’ 50 or more years ago takes us so close to the salt of the sea that it’s often far from comfortable. The style of writing is from a different era to our own and bursts with charm. I suspect that it smacks of a Naval ward-room in 1940. We join Ken and B on passage along the south-facing shore of the heel of Italy’s boot. Stand by for a wet ride and some brutal decisions…
“I think I like being lost. One spends one’s lifetime being continuously ‘found’, so getting lost makes a change. Now you might wonder how this is possible along a dead straight piece of coast when the port you’ve just left is behind you, and the port you’re heading for is within 30
