‘Here comes the squall,” says a voice excitedly. A girl of 11 or 12 clutching the side of the boat looks less thrilled. A squall is the most action you’ll get from this delicate, contemplative, rather eccentric documentary from film-maker Huw Wahl. It’s a love letter to engineless sailing: the art of navigating using only the wind, tides and good old fashioned seamanship. Though, really, that should be seawomanship, since the sailor we see most is Rose Ravetz (the director’s sister) who moors her engineless boat, the Defiance, at Maldon in Essex.
Filmed over three years and shot on 16mm film, there are some gorgeous images here that would give Turner a run for his money, like a milky sky melting into the white sea. It’s a feast for the ears, too, with a soundtrack of waves, creaking wood, the clank of metal and shrieking oystercatchers. Over in Maldon, Ravetz twists yarn to make rope by lamplight. Her musings about the effect of sailing on her anxious tendencies make it sound like meditation: “When you’re in that conversation with nature, it’s not in your head. It’s just feeling and responding without analysing it.”
