What does the word “adventure” mean to you? Exotic landscapes, perhaps? Or situations that could go in a heartbeat from thrill to peril?
For me, the idea of adventure conjures a memory of a stony path leading downhill, past luxuriant meadows, a sunny early-summer day, toward a thicket of trees, with a streak of shining water beyond. This trail is on a remote headland, itself jutting out from the long, slender peninsula of Cornwall in southwest England. This region has always been a wild place, full of folklore and mystery, with a rich natural life. And in Cornwall all roads lead to the sea.
I am a father myself now, and I know the joy of seeing wonder in your child’s face, of discovering things together.
My sister and I would be traipsing along behind the long stride of our father, who’d be carrying a battered old backpack and various bits of sailing kit we didn’t understand.
At the end of the trail, in the shade of trees, was a small beach and a stone dock. Our boat, named “Timewaster,” was tied up there. It was a dark-blue Mirror dinghy with scarlet sails. This boat was a rare positive contribution from Britain’s tabloids. In 1963, the Daily Mirror newspaper, in a bid to make sailing more accessible to the masses, commissioned designers to create a dinghy that would cost just £63 (that’s equivalent to about $1,800 today). The result was a DIY design that could be built at home from a plywood kit, using copper-wire stitching and glue. My father has always been handy, but I’m not sure I would have gone out in a boat he’d put together himself in the backyard. This one he bought secondhand.
BUY ISSUE 001
