ALL AT SEA
IAN’S AMAZING STORY
From a dingy on Castle Semple Loch at Lochwinnoch to a four- week voyage from Sydney Harbour to the Galapagos Islands via the Great Barrier Reef, there isn’t much that former Barrhead head teacher Ian Macpherson hasn’t experienced at sea.
The 83- year- old fell in love with sailing as a hobby and spent the next 40 years of his life taking on ocean adventures around the world.
From seeing the Northern Lights in the Faroes Isles to encountering saltwater crocodiles in Australia, Ian’s love of life on the water served as the perfect escape from the pressures of the classroom.
Now the former yachtsman has pieced together the best stories and pictures from his travels to produce a book of sailing memoirs, titled ‘A Scotsman’s Oddysey’.
“A couple of years ago I thought about putting a book together because I realised I had a lot of information that could make a pretty exciting story,” he told the Express.
“I took a creative writing course with U3A and then wrote it in about four months. The first week of lockdown I was actually working on the front cover, and the weeks after that fishing out the best pictures to go with the chapters.
“It’ s been really enjoyable to use lockdown constructively and look back over the many adventures I managed.
“I was at Barrhead High School for four years and that’s about when I started to be interested in sailing.
“I started out at Lochwinnoch on a little dingy and it just grew from there.
“I joined the Ocean Youth Trust, a charity which takes youngsters out to sea, and after that I sailed pretty much everywhere all around the world.
“My favourite voyage was around 1996 when we travelled from Sydney to Darwin Island, after heading through the Great Barrier Reef. That is definitely my most memorable journey.”
Ian’s last trip on a boat was in 2015, with the 83-year-old admitting he isn’t fit enough to move around a yacht like he used to.
But he is grateful for the escape sailing provided him from a lifetime in education and hopes his book will entertain sailors and casual readers alike.
He said: “Sailing has been my main hobby and provided me an escape from work.
“I loved my professional career but sailing allowed me to totally relax and switch off from it for awhile.
“I’m too old to get back on a boat now unfortunately. I’ve had two knee replacements and there’s no way I’d have the strength or agility to move around a yacht like I used to.
“I loved every minute of it though and I hope people would enjoy reading about my adventures too.
“I’m hoping it will appeal to the general reader, not just the sailing fraternity. There’s a lot of history about the places we visited and a lot of wildlife too.
“Basking sharks, dolphins, killer whales, humpback whales, saltwater crocidiles.
I’ve been fortunate to see so many incredible animals and now I hope I can share these happy memories with as many people as possible.”
● A Scotsman’s Oddysey is available to buy now on Amazon via publisher Conrad Press.