Chronology – how fast the years spin by!

2013, Winter – student at Georgian College, Midland campus, taking 1-year Marine Engine Mechanic course.

2013, summer – working on Kuan Yin in Labrador ahead of going to school and then sailing down north once more.

2012, Summer – reached 300 miles north along the coast of Labrador before turning back due to mechanical troubles.

2011, Summer – marooned in the delightful St. Anthony, in northern Newfoundland, working to install a new transmission.

2009, Summer – Kuan Yin finally departed Toronto down the St. Lawrence Seaway. Reached Rimouski, Quebec, before winter haulout.

2009, Spring – published my fifth book “Staying Home, How to Get Away Without Going Away”  co-authored with the fabulously creative Simone Pertuiset.

2009, Spring  – major refit of “Kuan Yin” 85% completed.

2008, Winter – intensive training to attain the Royal Yachting Association “Yachtmaster Offshore” standard.  The English Channel and the Solent in winter time are as challenging as I could find in terms of stronger winds, heavier seas, tidal streams, vessel traffic and buoys and signals.

2008, Summer  – refitting “Kuan Yin” in preparation for the 1000-mile journey down the St. Lawrence river to Newfoundland and Labrador in 2009.

2007, Winter – working to complete “A Shipload of Angels”, a novel about people caught up in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami.

2006, Summer – sold almost all my possesions and moved about a Tahitiana 32, a steel ketch currently on Lake Huron, part of the Great Lakes in Canada. She will be my home for the forseeable future.

2005, January –  following the Indian Ocean Tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004, crewing aboard “Sean Paqito II” – a large, privately-owned sailing ship taking food and medicine to survivors on the west coast of Sumatra.

2002 – Moved aboard a Roberts 36 sailboat in the Andaman Sea,writing and cruising between the islands of Malaysia and Thailand.

1998 – published “Canadian Retreat Guide”, 2nd edition.

1996 – published “Directory of Retreats in Canada”, 1st edition.

1995 – 1999 – Founded, built and operated St. Life Retreat, a non-denominational retreat centre in Ontario, Canada.

1992 – published “Savages, the Life & Killing of the Yanomami”.

1990 – published “Amazon”.

1989 – 1993 – based in Lisbon, Portugal.

1986 – 1991 – travelled throughout the Amazon, often alone and for months in my own canoe. Stayed several times with Yanomami Indians in a remote area north of the Rio Negro.

1986 – published “A Walk Along the Ganges”.

1983 – 1984 – solo pilgrimage 3,000 kms along banks of River Ganges, India.

1982 – bought my first house, a 350-square foot cabin in a ghost town in the Badlands of Alberta, Canada. With the help of friends, the little house beside the Red Deer River was fully renovated.  East Coulee is now a town thriving on tourism.

1980 – emigrated to Canada. My first job was shovelling pig shit for my sister and brother-in-law on their farm in Alberta.

1976 -1978 – reporter on Telegraph & Argus, Bradford, England. In addition to general news reporting), wrote a weekly column for teenagers, a series on “Bradford Characters”, many travel features and regularly about water and rail transport.

1976 – travelled overland to Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. The journey included a five-day train ride to Tehran and a delightful visit to see the statue of the Buddha at Bamiyan (since destroyed by the Taliban).
1974 – 1975 – hitch-hiked solo, Cape Town to Cairo after saving all my wages working as a dustbinman for two months.

1964 – 1970 – pupil at Catteral Hall, Giggleswick, England.

1956 – born in Yorkshire, England.