Remarkable Stories

We are taking a short break while John works the Annapolis Sailboat Show and then heads for the Leeward Islands aboard Ave del Mar. Over in Mallorca, Mike has a couple of walls to knock down. Rest assured, we have plenty of fascinating guests and escapades lined up for Season 3. It is going to be the best season yet. If you need to get in touch, you can contact us via: [email protected] [email protected]

David Gluckman grew up in South Africa when the country was still in the grip of apartheid. He arrived in London at the start of the sixties and spent a great deal of time chasing women, drinking booze and smoking cigarettes. He was an ad man and, albeit very briefly, he was a copywriter but it was as an inventor of drinks brands that he really found success. There's Baileys, of course, but David also invented Le Piat d'Or, Aqua Libra, Purdeys, The Singleton, Ciroc Vodka, Coole Swan, Smirnoff Black, Sheridans, Tanqueray Ten and many more. Trust us, if you're partial to the occasional alcoholic drink, David's probably got you smashed some time. These days, David writes books and advises start ups. He spoke to Mike McDowall from his home in London. 

This week, the dynamic duo talk about in-mast furling, stick shift versus auto cars and impressionist paintings. Because why not.

This is the strange tale of a British family who decided to establish their own nation. On Christmas Eve 1966, Paddy Bates and his son, Michael, took possession of an abandoned anti-aircraft gun emplacement seven and a half miles off the coast of southeast England. The following year, they declared independence. Fifty-two years later they are still independent despite the occasional hiccup such as an armed invasion by German merceneries. Mike McDowall spoke to Michael Bates, now Prince Michael of Sealand.

John met Johannes Volbehr in Jamaica a few years ago. At the time, the happy-go-lucky world traveller was making his way from Germany to South America by working his passage aboard private sailing vessels. Shortly after their encounter, Johannes and an acquaintance called Ine were taken on as crew by the skipper of Our Joy, a sailboat bound for Panama. The journey did not go as planned. Johannes tells his tale to Remarkable Stories' John Herlig. Our efforts to locate Rockney Ragsdale have been unsuccessful.