Scally was not a large sailboat, and at a mere 31-feet, space was a premium. When we think about young children nowadays; ages nine and two years old, happily playing and running around their homes or local playgrounds, I find it hard to imagine how difficult it must have been for my two youngest brothers. There were no Ipads, no Disney movies, no distractions of the kind that parents take for granted these days. The two of us older ones had chores to do, which kept us occupied, and also our shifts, which taught us responsibility. They are skills that serve me well to this day.

Our chores on deck included washing and scrubbing the decks daily with salt water pulled up from the ocean in a green canvas bucket tied to a rope and special detergent which lathered in salt water, and a small hand held brush. We began up at the forepeak and worked our way down the port and starboard sides on our hands and knees, to the cockpit and the stern. Other chores included polishing the chrome stanchions to keep rust at bay; winding the lines into round coils on deck to dry them out and make it look nice; checking the jerry cans lining the starboard and portside decks to ensure that they were properly strapped down; keeping the cockpit tidy, and looking out over the horizon to spot potential squalls or other threats. We sang songs, endlessly. Me on the guitar and everyone else joining in. Yellow Submarine. Slip Sliding Away. Country Roads.

Down below, we made our beds every day. Mine and my youngest brother’s had to be stowed away every day because it was needed as sitting space during the day for us to eat round the saloon table. Cleaning and tidying up was also done a few times a day; Scally could get quite messy with the six of us during the day. We played backgammon, trivial pursuit and dominoes for hours on end; read the tomes my father had chosen for us to read on the trip; and sang. We wrote daily in the logbook and observed my father plotting our position on the charts. We made no noise as we listened quietly and carefully to my father connecting with other Ham radio enthusiasts, somewhere in the world. This was our only connection to others and we were all grateful for it. Charlie Tango Delta Romeo India November Alpha. We were all fluent in the international radio alphabet.

Food and drink: water was in limited supply, you never knew when it might run out. One cup of water. There was a powder orange drink which when mixed with water made orange juice; and Coca Cola. My middle brother, aged nine, developed the skill for baking fresh bread in our little oven on gimbals. It was always delicious. Sometimes there was fresh tuna, if we had managed to catch one, and it often lasted for days. There were no fresh vegetables and fruit because after one or two days at sea it went off; so we had tinned instead. We were never hungry.

Exercise: non-existent.

Sleep: a lot.

Contentedness: we were a happy family