ABOVE: Roger
considers the
cruise to the
Lofotens as the
highlight of his
sailing career
INSET: Even at a
young age, Roger
was a natural
sailor, performing
lookout duty on
the Firth of Clyde
BELOW: Catching
the wind on Loch
Broom29, from her mooring at Port
Dinorwic on the Menai Strait
to St Kilda, again marvelling at
Stac an Armin — at 643ft, the
highest monolith in Britain.
Roger’s next boat was
a Rival 34, Eugie, but he was
disappointed with her and
after three seasons, upgraded
to a Rival 36, Liberty, which he
shared with two friends, Peter
Davies and Steve Henderson.
‘We performed as a team on
the boat as we once did on
the hills,’ Roger said about
his offshore exploits, although
sailing has also included day
trips with ex-wife Sally and
children, Elinor and Owen.
One reason for rarely
heading south to ‘lands where
the butter melts’ is that Roger
found his MS reduced him to
barely more than a cripple: ‘It’s much
worse when you’re hot,’ he said, ‘during
a charter to Turkey I couldn’t move.’
After such a gruelling experience,
he took a charter to Greenland.
SAILING HIGH
But the highlight of his sailing life was a cruise to
the Lofoten Islands, a trip Roger had been hankering
to make for over 50 years. The opportunity fi nally
arrived when another Cambridge friend, Howard
Steen, bought Martha Maria, a Vancouver 27, and
moored her in the Baltic, sailing a little nearer each
season to the Lofoten Islands.
In 2011, Roger and Howard sailed her from just
north of Bergen over the 800 miles to the ‘frayed
chain of granite islands.
‘As it was high summer when we reached
them, there were no nights. At 2330 one night,
we infl ated the dinghy and rowed away from
Martha Maria to take photos of her in the midnight
sun. There wasn’t a whisper of wind and the boat
was bathed in soft, golden light with mountains and
islands all round. If ever I think of the world as a
cruel, ugly place, that memory resurfaces to remind
me otherwise.’
Aboard Liberty, Roger has explored the
Shetland and Orkney Islands and sailed round
Cape Wrath; his favourite anchorage is also up
in those western isles.
‘Of all the anchorages in the Summer Isles, the
one we like best is the sheltered channel between
the two uninhabited islets of Tanera Beg and Eilean
Fada Mor. To the east, the porcupine ridges of Stac
Pollaidh stand guard over the surrounding land
like a colossal fortress. To the west, the setting
sun over the Outer Hebrides turns the Torridon
sandstone cliffs even pinker. All this and coral
sands, occasional otters, wild fl owers and the
remote villages of Wester Ross...’
A sudden gust turns the
window frame into a high-pitched
musical reed and bullets of rain,
or spindrift rattle the pane.
Does Roger have words of advice for others facing
his dilemma, I wonder?
‘Number one, keep as fi t as possible, two,
have a passion, three, have goals and four,
value your friendships.’
As is appropriate for a man who has loved
the wild places both on and offshore, Roger has
left instructions for his ashes to be scattered over
both: at his family cottage in Snowdonia and over
the waters of his childhood sailing youth at Skye’s
Loch Scavaig.
Night has fallen over the Irish Sea. We can no
longer see the breakers but we can still hear them,
along with the westerly gale whistling through
the window.CRUISING LIFE