Dick Durham's blog
Web log entry dated 17 September 2008
Sailing away from heart-ache
If ever there was a real life Flying Dutchman it would have to be Nick Pochin the 68-year-old skipper/owner of Festina Lente, a Discovery 55. When Nick's wife Sue died in 1992, after 25 years of happy marriage, Nick felt life had no meaning. He decided to get a boat and sail round the world 'If I died it didn't matter anymore.'
Fortunately four years on he met Gilli and she refined Nick's sailing plans: they sailed a Jeanneau 42 down to Gibraltar and spent eight years exploring the Med. Then they started to plan a circumnavigation with the Blue Water Rally in their new boat: Festina Lente.
Unfortunately Gilli had to drop out of the voyage to look after her ailing parents and Nick's round-the-world voyage was made with various crew members ending up with a group of young Polish yachtswomen whose sailing skills were a huge bonus to completing the voyage in 2007. I joined Nick and crew for the leg from Port Tewfik, Egypt through the Suez Canal to Crete. Now he has written the story of his cruise: Poles Get Closer, £11.99 plus £2.99 p&p. To order a copy Tel: 01270 625207.
But by now Nick had the bug. Not for him a return to shore life and the family business in Cheshire. His boat is currently in Lagos, Portugal and as soon as he has a crew organised Nick is off again, this time to Brazil, Cape Horn, and up the western seaboard of the Americas to Alaska. 'Sailing is my life now,' he says.
Dick Durham
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