Sport
Seafarer Mark up to the challenge in bid By Steve Keenan sport@blackmorevale.net
A Sherborne sailor is getting ready to tackle the third stage of a round Britain charitable challenge to meet every harbour master. Mark Ashley Miller, 58, set himself the five-year challenge after selling his Sherborne gift shop and online store business The Present Finder in 2018. The following spring he set sail from Dartmouth, Devon, to Ardfern on the west coast of Scotland, where he over wintered his boat. Then last summer, he sailed around the Scottish coast to Inverness. Over the course of the two summers, he has sailed 4,000 nautical miles, meeting 110 harbour masters. Last summer, his progress was hampered by lockdown until July, then his first port of call was Oban. The harbour had only a handful of yachts, said Mark.
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ISLAND FLING: At anchor off Handa Island, Sutherland, Scotland, and, inset, below, Mark Ashley Miller charting a course below decks on Good Dog
“Normally in July the population of the town swells from 8,000 to 30,000 people – hard to imagine.” His 34’ mono-hull motor sailing ketch Good Dog sleeps four, has three sails and a tender for getting ashore. Mark’s wife Fiona and son Willian have crewed parts of the journey, with friends also climbing aboard. Volunteer crews are welcome, he says.
It’s all in aid of Seafarers UK, a charity which supports seafarers and their families in need. As Mark points out: “During covid-19, this work is even more significant with 300,000 seafarers trapped on their ships worldwide.” Last summer, he was able to visit every single west coast harbour including the Outer Hebrides, Orkney, Fair Isle and Shetland. “In August the HMs of both Ullapool and Stornoway recommended I took Good Dog out to St Kilda, and we were rewarded with the most stunning destination so far.” A former Army
Captain himself, Mark is supporting the charity in memory of his father Peter, who was in the Royal Navy. “The charity also supports men’s mental health. Having suffered depression myself, I am keen to promote them.” So far, he has raised £7,000, including Gift Aid, of his £10,000 target. With the Seafarers’ permission, he is donating 10% to St Martin’s Church in Lillington, near Sherborne, where he is church warden. “It’s in return for being released from my warden’s duties for my five-year odyssey,” he says. Mark, who learned to sail growing up in the Norfolk Broads, contacts a harbour master a week in advance of
