Time off - Voyages of discovery open up new worlds, new hopes

Sep 14 2006 By Graeme King, North East Vision

Adventures on the high seas were the order of the day this summer for a Northumberland cheesemaker, as Graeme King discovered.

Mark Robertson has achieved a long-standing ambition. He has spent four weeks crossing the Atlantic as one of a four-man crew aboard a 50ft Bermudan sloop.

The 3,300 mile crossing from St Martin in the Leeward Islands of the West Indies to Sotogrande in Spain, via the Azores, took nearly a month to complete and for Mark it was the achievement of a long held dream.

As the boss of the award-winning Northumberland Cheese Company at Blagdon, near Morpeth, Mark has spent most of his working life as a farmer, although his late father was a senior naval officer.

So when he was offered a berth aboard the 1998 Dufour 50 classic Grande Croisiere, known as Ushomi (Zulu slang for friends) with two other businessmen and an ex-Royal Navy skipper, he jumped at the chance.

Despite recurring bouts of sea-sickness, he took on the role of the boat's sail trimmer and earned the nickname of "Tommy Trimmer" during the long voyage.

He also provided Northumberland cheese for the crew and recorded in the boat's log of May 20 (Day 10) that "they have now eaten all the cheeses apart from the goat cheese and we seem to be getting fulsome praise, which is a credit to all at home."

Back at home in Northumberland, he said: "Four adults in a very small space for that length of time is quite a challenge. We all came from very different backgrounds, but fortunately we had a very, very competent ex-Royal Navy chief petty officer skippering us.

"He had the capacity to treat us like children or adults, depending on our behaviour. There were some moments of pure serenity.

"I was challenged to do the trip by one of my directors, as a form of personal development - and you could say I have learnt some truths about myself."

When the Ushomi berthed at Horta on the island of Faial in The Azores, west of mainland Portugal, after 17 days at sea, Mark was delighted to discover there was a cheesemaking factory on the island and insisted on taking the crew to see it.

The woman who was in charge said it was the first time anyone had asked to see around the place. Mark noted that all the cows were milked in the fields and the milk was picked up at collection points around the island.

During the voyage, Mark spotted two large whales about 200ft from the boat, "ambling along in the opposite direction, clearly not interested in us at all."

He also recorded schools of dolphins swimming all around the Ushomi for days on end, and fantastic dawns and sunsets with the night sky providing "lots of entertainment".

But now Mark has returned to Blagdon to take charge of Northumberland Cheese again - and his role as vice-chairman of Northumbria Larder, the regional food group.

Mr Robertson is not the first North-East businessman to embark on a seagoing adventure.

The chairman of engineering business Express Group, Chris Thompson, has also crossed the Atlantic by yacht - back in 2003.

And just recently two Newcastle businessmen - Oliver Vaulkhard, from Fluid Group, and Mike Banbury, of Gosforth Wheelers Auto Centre - took on a circumnavigation of the British Isles.

Mr Thompson sailed the 5,000 miles from the Caribbean back to the UK with friends Alan Lindsay and John Gibson, former Newcastle United skipper Bob Moncur and chartered accountant Lawrence Carey.

Meanwhile, Mr Vaulkhard and Mr Banbury completed a 1,700 mile trip in just an eight metre open-top boat.

They stopped at Dublin, Kilmore Quay, Falmouth, Salcombe, the Isle of Wight and Ramsgate before returning to Newcastle Quayside, raising £7,000 for Macmillan Cancer Relief in the process.