About the Author

Born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, in 1945, David Gregory was brought up in Newfoundland and Pakistan before completing his education in England. He served in the Royal Navy as a seaman officer during the 1960s before spending six years in the Sea Wing of the Abu Dhabi Defence Force as it grew to become the nucleus of the present day UAE Navy. Subsequently, he worked worldwide in the offshore oil industry as Captain of salvage tugs and support ships. In 1980, having bought and lived on a yacht during leave periods for several years, he became a full time professional yacht skipper. Over the next twenty years, he captained, and supervised building of, vessels for the Saudi and Bahraini royal families, and for an Australian entrepreneur. During this period, he wrote a series of articles for Navy International and became involved in the campaign to preserve HMS Plymouth. In 2000, with his wife, he carried out a resurrection of an old, derelict motor sailor that they then cruised until family concerns required a permanent presence in the UK. David Gregory is now retired and lives in Todmorden, on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border in the Pennines.