I’m a great admirer of offshore adventures in small boats, ever since reading about the voyages of the late Frank Dye and his wife Margaret. In the 1960s they sailed their 16ft Wayfarer dinghy Wanderer to Norway and Iceland and eventually covered over 34,000 miles.

Although not exactly on the same scale, a cross-Channel passage made recently by traditional boatbuilder Will Stirling of Devon-based Stirling & Son impressed me.

He and a friend sailed one of the 14ft dinghies he’d built from Plymouth to the Jersey Boat Show, where the Edwardian-style daysailer was put on display.

It took over 37 hours at sea and involved a bit of rowing in light airs and strong tides. It sounds like quite an adventure.

What a wonderful way to promote the seakeeping abilities of the little boat. The atmospheric photo below of her arriving at St Helier. It really makes me want a small boat to undertake some ‘micro-cruising’ of my own.