Following on from yesterday I thought I’d look out an old favourite of mine in my archive.

My records show this was made in 1979, an auspicious year as that is when I tied the knot with Mrs.O and also when I circumnavigated Great Britain on HMCC Searcher. So this image had to be made before the end of April. It was taken in the middle of the English Channel as she was beating Eastbound for France.

The Sir Winston Churchill and Malcolm Miller were two Sail Training Association vessels almost identical apart from the shape of doorways. Steel hulled, they could hang out 14 sheets of canvas. She has 9 out of 11 visible in the image. I’m not sure where they would hang another 3.

We had been in Fowey the day before where she was moored up in the middle of the River. This was one of several images I made of her with a Zenit B.  I do like a touch of contre jour and this was all guesswork.

When Ron Bayly commissioned Searcher from Brooke Marine in Lowestoft he had one of the cabinet makers frame a copy of this image. Then of course it was a proper 20 x 16 silver halide print. It adorned the mess deck bulkhead.

I wonder where that one ended up?