Tim and Pauline Carr. May they stay forever young.

I woke up this morning, did my usual half an hour with the weights and after a bit of breakfast prepared for a few hours work down the allotment. I think that I'm reasonably fit for my age but I certainly don't have the stamina that I had only a few years ago. When I was young I worked on a ship alongside a guy called Tim Carr. Tim was a couple of years older than me, was already widely travelled, had been curator of birds at Jersey Zoo and was an environmentalist long before it became the trendy thing to be. He was also one of the most doggedly self-reliant people that I have ever met. Not long after this Tim acquired a girlfriend (Pauline) and a very old and very small wooden sailing boat (Curlew). Tim and Pauline came to stay with us at the cottage in Devon in 1970 having spent the intervening years getting Curlew fitted out for a round the world voyage. We lost touch eventually and it was years later that I discovered that they had spent their lives sailing the world on a shoestring in this tiny vessel before finally settling in remote South Georgia. They moved on when even this haven of tranquility became too busy with tourists. This morning I came across this video of a lecture they gave a few years back.

I mention all this because I well remember Tim saying how he dreaded getting old and not being able to do all the things like climbing the mast that he took for granted. I have no idea where Tim Carr is today but I hope that he is fit and well. May you stay forever young.