When Clara Dollman comes to meet our heroes off the coast of Norderney on October 21, it all kicks off. Carruthers has to make the cabin fit for a lady, Davies gets hot under the collar and there’s something fishy about the library of sailing books on board.

We discuss the best books to have on a small boat, the history of Norderney, what makes a cabin woman-friendly, Edwardian cocoa, and how Childers has got his tide tables terribly terribly wrong. We then drift off into a long diversion about the popularity of 1970s TV series ‘The Onedin Line’ in Romania. Hopefully, we’ll be back on course in time to discuss the row to Memmert in the next podcast.

Lloyd notDavies dives straight in by announcing he’s going on a sailing course (00:52 ), but what books might he have on board any boat he skippers? (05:11 ); Davies favours E. F. Knight (05:58 ), Cowper (09:29 ) and Macmullen (10:44 ); we list the top 25 books that one might except to find on a cruising saloon bookshelf (12:38 ); a brief discussion of George Crowninshield Jnr and the birth of small boat cruising culture (14:37 ).

Tim notCarruthers gets very cross about Childers’s frankly cavalier disregard for tides and tide tables (16:55 ); he cites an article in Cruising World by Alistair Buchan proving that the events of October 21 are impossible to re-enact (18:09 ); there are consequences, too, for October 22 and the plausibility of the row to Memmert (22:52 ).

Lloyd notDavies offers brief notes on Norderney (25:58 ); we discover that the island is practically British, thanks to Hanoverian connections (27:14 ); the case is made to put Isak Dinesen into our growing onboard library ( 29:49 ).

Tim notCarruthers tries to understand womens’ cabins (31:30 ); details of the HMS Daring ‘unisex’ warship (32:14 ); drawer management on boats - is it different for girls? (34:50 ); cocoa as a woman's drink, and the story of Egbert Fry (36:52 ).

Club business: Tony F reminds us about the German TV series ‘Das Rätsel der Sandbank’, allowing us to reprise the theme tune (42:08 ); how ‘The Onedin Line’ fuelled the revolution in Romania (43:14 ); Jon on Boulter’s lock in Berkshire (45:55 ); more on ‘The Onedin Line’ and on to ‘Howard’s Way' - we've gone too far... (46:50 ).

Missions for next week: how possible is the row to Memmert?; more meals including breakfast at the Four Seasons Hotel and dinner with the Dollmans; did the address at Schwanallee ever exist? (48:40 )

MUSIC CREDITS

Great Open Sea by Wellington Sea Shanty Society : http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Wellington_Sea_Shanty_Society/none_given_1098/12_-_Wellington_Sea_Shanty_Society_-_Great_Open_Sea