RYA Publications in the US

Well I thought my travels might be over for this year but I am delighted to say they have brought me to the lovely sunshine of Florida.

It's the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show and I am visiting to help the RYA, Royal Yachting Association, launch their range of nautical books in the US.

The Boat Show is huge, apparently the largest in the world, and my feet can testify to that! Sunseeker were kind enough to allow us to host the launch party on the stand and a big thank you to them for their help.

Since the launch I have been enjoying the sights and sounds of Florida and particularly Palm Beach. It's pretty exclusive, with only window shopping on Worth Ave, the equivalent of Rodeo Drive here.

It's not all sunshine though. It has rained, and rained and rained. In fact on one of the Boat Show days one of the exhibitors we were visting, Bluewater Books and Charts, were making paper boats to float down the aisles - and they were in a marquee!!

Soon be back to the UK and the dark nights, not much fun but I am looking forward filming the next episode of Yachting TV. Hope you are enjoying this one.

Phew, a fantastic season on the water

Well, since I last chatted on this blog there has been much activity on my patch of water, or rather the patches of water I observe around the country when I am broadcasting or commentating.

I think the last time I posted a blog I had just seen Geoff Holt come back from his epic round Britain trip. Well, I caught up with Geoff at the Southampton Boat Show when I was asked by those very nice people at Raymarine to host the announcements of the nominations for the Raymarine YJA Yachtsman of the Year and the Raymarine Young Sailor of the Year. The awards always mean a great deal to their recipients and it was particularly good to catch up with Young Sailor of the Year, Katie Miller and Dee Caffari. Katie is lovely and a great ambassador for the sport of sailing. Dee is Dee and great fun to be with.

In fact I enjoyed her little party on a boat on Southampton Water to celebrate the launch of her book. Her mum was there too and it was a lovely, friendly evening - shame we didn't get a copy of the book at the end! Publishers take note!!

After a busy, busy Southampton Boat Show, including a great time filming for the next month's Yachting TV it was off to Weymouth to catch the end of the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta. This saw lots of our Olympic sailors pitting their sailing skills against each other at what will be the venue of the sailing events for London 2012. It's a great event and I love meeting the new guys who will be doing great things in the sport in years to come. Not sure about the hotel though - Portland Lodge you need to up your act before the Games!!

And so to the end of the season and a trip to Liverpool for the Honda Formula 4Stroke series. It's been great fun commentating on this vibrant and oh so competitive series. The last races were no different to the first of the season with every boat battling until the end. There were a few swimming lessons for some of the crews but thankfully no serious injuries. It was a bit of an end of an era for all girl team, Shelley Jory and Libby Keir. After four years racing in the series Team Raymarine is having some time out. But I have a feeling they will stay in the limelight but maybe not in boats for a while!!

Now there's some chilly airs around which means Autumn and plotting next season on and off the water. There's plenty afoot. More soon...