Personal
A few words about who I am may be appropriate at this stage. I am a human British male born in England in 1955 in Buckinghamshire (West of London) and named Simon Andrew Coles. I still feel quite young apart from when people remind me of my age! I have adopted the nickname "Sam". I spent early life in the villages of Wooburn Green and Bourne End and went to school in Wooburn Green, Beaconsfield and Bedford. My father was an engineer, keen travellor and amateur linguist. He took us 5 (Mum, 2 sisters and I) on numerous caravanning holidays around England and Europe, sometimes carrying a Heron dinghy which we would sail in a variety of places. Later we moved to East Yorkshire/ Humberside and I went to University in Nottingham and thereafter went travelling to West Africa and India. On the second trip to India in 1979 I bought the first Ramprasad (see Ramprasad I) which I sailed to Australia. After a few months there I flew back to England, did some work, more education and then become a scientist at the University of Sussex. See http://www.sussex.ac.uk/space-science/personnel.html#RECENT Then I got stuck into the second Ramprasad project. See 12 Year Project I have a home base in Portslade just in the city of Brighton and Hove on England's South coast and with a view of the port of Shoreham where I often keep Ramprasad. This is a very short life summary and consequently many important and significant parts and aspects have been omitted on grounds of brevity. My apologies in advance to anyone who knows of these significant parts and feels they should be mentioned. Please feel free to contact me and let me know! I try not to bore the discerning reader ...
Pet Subjects
No website would be complete without some pet subject being mentioned. Firstly since I've just mentioned pets I find some cats to be quite adorable lovely creatures - especially marmelade coloured ginger cats. I grew up with "Marmy" - a fully ginger neutered tom who died when I was about 18 - I buried him in our place in Newbald. I have never had a cat of my own but could easily if it wasn't so hard to travel with one and especially come back to Britain on a boat with one.
I am against child cruelty and child mutilation in all its forms ... in particular those forms routinely practiced by certain groups in society - that it is sometimes sanctioned or required by some religions seems to me to bring those religions into disrepute. It seems OK to choose to be mutilated as an adult (piercings, tattoos, circumcisions etc) but to make irreversible body changes for a child in your care perhaps based on your cultural background is I believe improper care to say the very least. 23rd Oct - The subject of female circumcision/genital mutilation was aired on BBC World Service's "Westway". I guess it would be much more controversial to air the subject of male circumcision since it is so much more widely practiced.
Anchor lights - I am strongly in favour of cruising yachts showing an all-round white light when at anchor during the hours of darkness as indeed they are required to do by the IRPCS (The International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea). When coming into a dark anchorage at night it is VERY hard to see yachts at anchor which do not display such a light.
I am strongly against the hunting and eating of marine mammals such as whales, dolphins and porpoises (cetaceans). These are intelligent creatures which the human species have hunted enough in the past and I think we should let them roam the oceans freely now without molestation
I do not have particularily strong political/other views - these are just a few matters which I feel strongly enough to mention here now. I reserve the right to add and/or amend as I feel fit.
Facial hair - As some of you may have noticed I often have some facial hair. It grows on me and it is a daily effort to shave every day - I don't like having a few days growth - either a proper beard or daily shaving. But since my beard now grows white I shave more.
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Home Page Pilot Whales Azores-Falmouth Visit to Pico StMartin-Azores Ramprasad I 12 Year Project Return to UK Email Carnival External Links A Year Away ARC 2000 Caribbean Cruising Iberian Adventures Algarve Madeira Canaries Photos-1 Cuba Venezuela Interior Pictures 2003 Part1 2004 Cruising 2005 Cruising