Atlantic Crossing by Lochlann

Passage Island of Sao Vincente in Cape Verde to Martinique in the Caribbean February 2015

When we left the Cape Verde to cross the Atlantic I felt that we had finally succeeded in our dream. We had talked, planned, discussed, argued and eventually agreed about going to the Caribbean, and now we were actually leaving.

Racundra's Last Cruise Published by Marine Quarterly

The article was published by Marine Quarterly in the Spring 2015 edition and Mixed Moss The journal of the Arthur Ransome Society 2016


The wind was howling around the roof of my house in Penzance one stormy day last winter, and I was feeling happy to be safe on dry land.  I was in the attic sorting through some boxes when I came across a couple of letters that my father, Rod Pickering, wrote to my family about the beautiful sailing boat Racundra.

            Racundra was built for Arthur Ransome of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ fame in Riga in 1922, and is immortalised in his wonderful book ‘Racundra’s First Cruise.  Adlard Coles bought her, renamed her Annette II, and wrote about her in his book Close-Hauled. She was renamed Racundra after Adlard Coles sold her. She passed through various different hands and fell into obscurity.  My father was her fourteenth - and last - owner.

The only photo I have of Racundra.  This is the pic my father took when he 'found' her in Tangiers, Morrocco.