At this stage, it's a bit of intellectual exercise that's more interesting than crossword puzzles. But when I get back to England, I'll be wanting a small boat, and at various times while I've been away cruising, I've thought of ending my career by exploring the upper reaches of the Solway Firth and Morecambe Bay, where the chart sort of goes blank, through lack of water navigable to a larger boat.

All this recent talk of small boat cruising has got my creative juices flowing. Here are some views of a Freeship model of a 4.75m camping cruiser, scaled down from Annie's SibLim. Junk-rigged, of course, and I'd be thinking of something like the Fantail sail. Displacement laden is 500kg, with 100kg of lead ballast, and probably 100 litres of freshwater ballast as well. Dry weight 260kg, leaving 140kg for solo sailor and stores. Sailing solo on a cruise - plenty of drinkable ballast! Daysailing with a crew - empty out some of the water.