Creswell has grown-up with boats learning to sail off Grytskar Island in Finland and then escaping from school via the Solent.

“I had learnt to sail as a child, augmented by sailing at school out of Hamble Point, but as a 30-year-old bachelor I bought a 36 foot motor sailer, a converted doubleended Norwegian fishing boat with a huge David Brown 6-pot diesel. She was called Gafita, a suitable foreign-sounding name which disappointingly turned out to be the acronym for 'get away from it all'. So I did. After 3 years in UK waters I set off through the French canals to the Med, chasing the dream. Having cruised Spain and the Balearics, then Sardinia for several months I headed south towards Sicily but ran out of money and unemployed friends to crew, so headed back to Minorca where the dream went sour. I returned home and 2 years later brought the boat back, now peeling and tatty, eventually selling her... to a 30-year-old bachelor!”.

Now Creswell co-owns a 23ft ‘Sanpierota’ a venetian lagoon fishing boat called ‘Lucietta’. Lucietta is his studio in Venice, in her he escapes the crowds to have peace and privacy to sketch. “Sailing her is beautiful; skimming across the Lagoon in barely a foot of water. Mary and I have yet to learn to row her in the elegant Venetian manner of my Venetian partners.... that’s still to come!”.

On the Helford Creswell sails, fishes, catches lobsters and explores rockpools.... and loves watching his children learning to sail with the Helford River Children’s Sailing Trust.

Helford River Sailing Trust: http://hrcst.org.uk/wp/