Sailing in Paradise

Rod Heikell was born in New Zealand and sailed hesitantly around bits of its coast in a variety of yachts. He tried racing in the Hauraki Gulf but was really not much good at it. In England he abandoned academic life and for no good reason other than curiosity bought Roulette, a 1950s plywood JOG yacht nearly 20ft long, and sailed it down to the Mediterranean. He worked on charter her and delivered yachts until, in ignorance of the scale of the task, he set off to write a yachtsman's guide to Greece. This was followed by guides for other countries in the Mediterranean. He has sailed back and forth between England and the Mediterranean, including a trip down the Danube and on to Turkey in Rosinante, an 18ft Mirror Offshore. In 1996 he took his forth yacht, Tetra, to SE Asia and back for the research for Indian Ocean Cruising Guide. Apart from sailing the 'wrong' way and back again the 'right' way across the Indian Ocean, he has done four transatlantics on his own yachts and also cruised extensively in other parts of the world on other yachts. He is currently back at the end of a circumnavigationand sailing again in his beloved Mediterranean.