Update: the Route du Sable website has been updated with lots of photos. We were seventy six boats and about two hundred and fifty people in those boats. Some of our boats, like mine, only take one person. The Bantry yoles carry nine or ten people. Also see the Facebook page. There are new photos and media articles appearing all the time.

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As for the Empire, forget it! There are too many people in England having to afford out-priced housing. I have lived in France for years, but I am still attached to my origins. Our English tradition has been the envy of many and there are too many good things for the baby to be thrown out with the bathwater. I am a monarchist (with anarchist tendencies), we have a rich culture in music and art. We are generally prepared to discuss religion rather than ram it down people’s throats (that is something of a sweeping statement!). England is my home country, but in France you can still drive on a country road without twenty cars in front of you, each driving slower than the one behind. English politics are in just about the same mess as in socialist France! Indeed, the Empire is a thing of the past…

So, I flew the Union Jack from the mast of my boat!

Last Saturday evening, the Ouest France journalist Louise Caledec interviewed me and took photos.

After having lowered my sails, I hoisted my big Union Jack up the mast, and has just been given the Route du Sable flag, which I then added to my little banner of St George. I can’t sail with the big Union Jack, but the two small flags don’t get in the way.

My hair is now at nine months since my last haircut, and doing well – not yet quite as long as that of John Wesley! I am seen here in a traditional Brittany sailor’s shirt called a marinière.

British subject, Anglican Catholic priest – and totally eccentric! Even we priests need to be human, have fun and live in this world!