When I’m away from my yacht I find it relaxing to have things to do related to her, and bringing items back from her to fix, paint, varnish or toy with is a source of disproportionate pleasure!  And so it was yesterday I sat down in our home in Besançon, hundreds of miles away from Portsmouth (let alone the nearest bit of sea) and addressed my old Singer sewing machine.

I bought it a few years ago but it was originally made in Glasgow in the 1920s.   Very robust and very basic, it is beautifully engineered and a credit to its era and the Great Britain of the day. It was, however, definitely not aimed at the male market back then, as the blurb shows:

But I find it a thing of beauty, and it if you actually read the manual carefully and bother to thread everything as it should be, it is a very efficient way of repairing sails and making curtains and covers and so on.  I will definitely take it on long voyages. The job on hand was to make 3 new curtains out of material with backing, to prevent light from coming in under the hatches in the aft cabin and forepeak.

Three hours later the job was done.  I am no expert and improved decidedly as I progressed – but I hope future crew will sleep more soundly and for longer thanks to my endeavours!