Preparing to Sail Again…

We’re on the eve of another cruising adventure. For the next four weeks, I’ll be running painting and sketching workshops on board Saga’s Spirit of Discovery, sailing to the Caribbean.

The sketching sessions are a new innovation; I’ve prepared four of them, so I’ll be monitoring them very closely to see how well they are received. Theoretically, they should be something of a doddle compared to the painting sessions, which require a lot of setup. For pencil sketching all the guests really need is a pencil and a sketchbook – it’ll be interesting to see how that pans out.

On our last cruise to the Caribbean (over Christmas and the New Year), I managed to break our underwater camera (read the post here). It wasn’t an expensive one, but it had performed well over the years, enabling me to film some great tropical aquatic wildlife. For whatever reason, the plastic case that protected it when submerged sprang a leak, or wasn’t sealed properly. As a result, the camera was fried.

I’ve replaced it with something far more sophisticated; an Insta360 X5, which is a 360-degree camera that can film underwater. Needless to say, I’m very much looking forward to putting the camera through its paces. I’ve been using it on land since I bought it and am completely blown away by the results. Basically, it films everything – 360-degree footage that can then be reframed however you want it using the Insta360 Studio software. It also features impressive stabilisation, which means I can leave the gimbal at home. I can’t wait to get it into its deep-dive case and do some snorkeling with it… watch this space!