Captains Blog

We're about to set sail on a voyage from Cork to Swansea on the Superferry.

This follows a splendid few days in Eire, having landed in Dublin on Wednesday morning.

Before that we had made our way across England, stopping for a couple of hours at Stratford for a Shakespeare fix and then overnight on Anglesea island at a good little B&B.

At Dublin we made sure we took part in a Guiness tour and ate some pretty tasty garlic grub.

At Galway we investigated a whole street of pubs after braving the icy weather.

On the way to Cork we viewed some mighty cliffs and overdosed on castles.

And today we kissed the Blarney stone and saw the Waterford crystal HQ.

Now we are sipping flirtinis at the ships aft bar.

Atfer Chopper we had Grifter & then came the mightiest of them all...

Thanks to Duncan for bringing up the subject of old bicycles.

While attending the Mighty Boosh show in Ipswich I was shown a grainy phone photo of a bicycle that Dunc had snapped in Cambridge. Not unusual to find such vehicles in Cambridge but this one was special. It was (as later research revealed) a Raleigh Vektar.

I remember seeing one of these in the mid 80s and Dunc's little snapshot brought it all back to me. A BMX-style frame with a big vulgar plastic centre console housing amongst other things, an AM radio, sound effects unit and a trip computer. This is the way bikes should be in the age of Street Hawk and Knight Rider!

Naturally while doing a little web surfing to study the history of this little gem, I found myself adding a couple of Grifters to my ebay watch list...