West Country Cruising Companion (9th edition)

Mark Fishwick

Fernhurst

£42.50

A new edition of Mark Fishwick’s indispensable Cruising Companion, covering Portland Bill to the Isles of Scilly and up the north coast of Cornwall to Padstow, is a welcome event. There’s a note of melancholy in the introduction, however, as Fishwick reports how many shoreside facilities - shops and pubs, even chandleries – had closed even before the recent months of lockdown. Yet the beauty and history of this area remain undiminished and perhaps yachtsmen who decide to remain in UK waters this year will make their own contribution to the prosperity and survival of local businesses. Fishwick’s style is conversational with information incorporated within the text rather than extracted into boxes.  It may take a little more reading time but is properly companionable.