There is nothing, absolutely nothing more useful on a boat than 3mm line. I stretch it across my chest with one arm out to the side, the other bent at the elbow – and that’s a metre. Then add a bit for luck. Put a bowline in one end and you can do anything.
You can stop the halyards slapping. You can hold up lee cloths – dangle rechargeable lanterns over the cockpit for Happy Hour, stop the bottle opener from getting lost (you need a bottle opener once you get past Barbados).
The 3mm line is to the modern yachtie what Stockholm tar was to Joshua Slocum.
And it has held my rudder together for 1,500 miles. More, actually, because eventually I was so confident I put into Carriacou for customs and a bottle of cold Carib rather than heading straight for Prickly Bay in Grenada.
I decided I deserved a little celebration. I had just crossed the Atlantic in 20 days – and for
