Nick Coghlan
@nicholascoghlan.bsky.social
Recovering Cdn diplomat (posted in Mexico, Colombia, Sudan, Pakistan, South Africa & South Sudan). Sails, writes books, treks; opinionated on both Sudans. Home is Salt Spring Island BC. Sailing blog www.bosunbird.com Also at (X) @NicholasCoghlan
📚💙#OTD fifty years ago, the Gales of November Came Early, and the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in eastern Lake Superior 🇨🇦. Running here under sail, in fairer winds off Michipicoten Island; as featured in Chapter 47 of "Under Wide and Starry Skies."
November 10, 2025 at 6:13 PM
📚💙#OTD fifty years ago, the Gales of November Came Early, and the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in eastern Lake Superior 🇨🇦. Running here under sail, in fairer winds off Michipicoten Island; as featured in Chapter 47 of "Under Wide and Starry Skies."
Spending the morning searching out pix for an illustrated talk that will touch on the colonial era in #Sudan: General Gordon's Last Stand in the Palace; Sir Herbert Kitchener; the gunboat HMS Melik, HQ of the Blue Nile Sailing Club (est 1926)
November 5, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Spending the morning searching out pix for an illustrated talk that will touch on the colonial era in #Sudan: General Gordon's Last Stand in the Palace; Sir Herbert Kitchener; the gunboat HMS Melik, HQ of the Blue Nile Sailing Club (est 1926)
📚💙 Overlooked again by the Nobel Committee, but still hopeful for the Sailor's Nobel.... 😀
October 23, 2025 at 3:51 PM
📚💙 Overlooked again by the Nobel Committee, but still hopeful for the Sailor's Nobel.... 😀
💙📚After six years in exile, Napoleon died on the South Atlantic island of St Helena in 1821 and was buried here. #OTD in 1840, his reputation rehabilitated, his body was repatriated to France and now lies in monumental splendour at Les Invalides (Paris).1/2
October 18, 2025 at 9:34 PM
💙📚After six years in exile, Napoleon died on the South Atlantic island of St Helena in 1821 and was buried here. #OTD in 1840, his reputation rehabilitated, his body was repatriated to France and now lies in monumental splendour at Les Invalides (Paris).1/2
📚💙#OTD in 1815, the defeated Emperor Napoleon arrives at St Helena to begin his exile, writing in his diary: "It is not an attractive place, I should have done better to remain in Egypt." One of 50 locations featured in "Under Wide and Starry Skies."
October 15, 2025 at 4:18 PM
📚💙#OTD in 1815, the defeated Emperor Napoleon arrives at St Helena to begin his exile, writing in his diary: "It is not an attractive place, I should have done better to remain in Egypt." One of 50 locations featured in "Under Wide and Starry Skies."
📚💙To Fulford Village Hall on a dark & foggy evening, to hear the legendary @kenroth.bsky.social, ex-Director of @hrw.org . What a life well-spent - and an inspiration to me throughout my career! The night ended with a well-deserved standing ovation from the awed audience of 200. 🙏👏
October 11, 2025 at 3:12 PM
📚💙To Fulford Village Hall on a dark & foggy evening, to hear the legendary @kenroth.bsky.social, ex-Director of @hrw.org . What a life well-spent - and an inspiration to me throughout my career! The night ended with a well-deserved standing ovation from the awed audience of 200. 🙏👏
October 9, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Autumnal fog in Trincomali Channel as the sun comes up this morning over BC's Coast Mountains; you can hear the ships' foghorns.
October 7, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Autumnal fog in Trincomali Channel as the sun comes up this morning over BC's Coast Mountains; you can hear the ships' foghorns.
Haven't done a jigsaw since I was a kid - this 500-piece painting (🇲🇽 artist Jose Maria Velasco) was harder than I thought it would be🫤. To help, found a photo of the same mountain - Orizaba; 5747m - which I climbed back in 1994.
October 5, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Haven't done a jigsaw since I was a kid - this 500-piece painting (🇲🇽 artist Jose Maria Velasco) was harder than I thought it would be🫤. To help, found a photo of the same mountain - Orizaba; 5747m - which I climbed back in 1994.
Favourite books of 2025...
shepherd.com/bboy/2025/f/...
shepherd.com/bboy/2025/f/...
October 5, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Favourite books of 2025...
shepherd.com/bboy/2025/f/...
shepherd.com/bboy/2025/f/...
Ever since independence (2011), #SouthSudan has been bedevilled by the same issues: corruption, the oil curse, inter-ethnic tensions, aid dependency. "Collapse of a Country" focuses on 2012-16, but is still a primer for today. Now in paperback (cheaper😉) www.mqup.ca/collapse-of-...
September 27, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Ever since independence (2011), #SouthSudan has been bedevilled by the same issues: corruption, the oil curse, inter-ethnic tensions, aid dependency. "Collapse of a Country" focuses on 2012-16, but is still a primer for today. Now in paperback (cheaper😉) www.mqup.ca/collapse-of-...
📚💙 We did some work on our #sailing blog...Take a look at some of the fifty exotic destinations featured in Under Wide and Starry Skies, at www.bosunbird.com/under-wide-a...
September 19, 2025 at 2:09 PM
📚💙 We did some work on our #sailing blog...Take a look at some of the fifty exotic destinations featured in Under Wide and Starry Skies, at www.bosunbird.com/under-wide-a...
📚💙If you buy a book on Amazon (and you like it...) please leave a star rating (same for Goodreads). It makes a big difference in how the title appears in searches, and in sales 🙏
September 17, 2025 at 3:25 PM
📚💙If you buy a book on Amazon (and you like it...) please leave a star rating (same for Goodreads). It makes a big difference in how the title appears in searches, and in sales 🙏
OTD 40 years ago...The crew (admiral?) looking happy as we sail under San Francisco's Golden Gate after our first offshore passage (800nm from Victoria). Spoke by radio with the outgoing USS Nimitz, who kindly asked us to "take appropriate evasive action" 🫤 #sailing
September 15, 2025 at 6:05 PM
OTD 40 years ago...The crew (admiral?) looking happy as we sail under San Francisco's Golden Gate after our first offshore passage (800nm from Victoria). Spoke by radio with the outgoing USS Nimitz, who kindly asked us to "take appropriate evasive action" 🫤 #sailing
It's the fall of 1973...After a summer working as a Camp Counsellor (first time in North America), the friends I've made take me for the day to NYC. I remember this crazy lady in the Battery; and of course, the Twin Towers. Taken on an Instamatic.
September 11, 2025 at 6:47 PM
It's the fall of 1973...After a summer working as a Camp Counsellor (first time in North America), the friends I've made take me for the day to NYC. I remember this crazy lady in the Battery; and of course, the Twin Towers. Taken on an Instamatic.
📚💙 Aitutaki, 🇨🇰 (did you know this flag?!). One of 50 remote destinations in "Under Wide and Starry Skies." You can get there by air as well as by sailboat - what are you waiting for?
September 11, 2025 at 3:22 PM
📚💙 Aitutaki, 🇨🇰 (did you know this flag?!). One of 50 remote destinations in "Under Wide and Starry Skies." You can get there by air as well as by sailboat - what are you waiting for?
One morning, we were getting ready to leave our anchorage on the west coast of Vancouver Island, when friends on nearby Cornelia (Port Townsend, 🇺🇸) called over: "Don't go yet...ten minutes!" A little later Madeleine rowed over and handed us this...which she'd been working on for an hour. #sailing
September 7, 2025 at 3:15 PM
One morning, we were getting ready to leave our anchorage on the west coast of Vancouver Island, when friends on nearby Cornelia (Port Townsend, 🇺🇸) called over: "Don't go yet...ten minutes!" A little later Madeleine rowed over and handed us this...which she'd been working on for an hour. #sailing
📚💙 #43 in "Under Wide and Starry Skies - 50 #Sailing Destinations in Seas Less Travelled" - the 🇧🇷 island of Fernando de Noronha. The viewpoint is reached via a 1060ft (323m) climb on steel ladders.
September 5, 2025 at 3:31 PM
📚💙 #43 in "Under Wide and Starry Skies - 50 #Sailing Destinations in Seas Less Travelled" - the 🇧🇷 island of Fernando de Noronha. The viewpoint is reached via a 1060ft (323m) climb on steel ladders.
📚💙 Approaching Cayo Herradura, Isla la Tortuga, #Venezuela. One of fifty out-of-the-way anchorages featured in Under Wide and Starry Skies. #sailing www.bloomsbury.com/ca/under-wid...
September 2, 2025 at 5:07 PM
📚💙 Approaching Cayo Herradura, Isla la Tortuga, #Venezuela. One of fifty out-of-the-way anchorages featured in Under Wide and Starry Skies. #sailing www.bloomsbury.com/ca/under-wid...
Sunrise over the Coast Mountains this morning, seen from Salt Spring Island.
August 31, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Sunrise over the Coast Mountains this morning, seen from Salt Spring Island.
What a privilege this morning.....We're camped at Nissen Bight, on the North Coast Trail, and a Coastal Wolf turns to stare at us. A sub-species of the Grey Wolf, these wolves are solitary and survive on clams, mussels and foraging on the beach; they are strong swimmers.
August 29, 2025 at 7:07 PM
What a privilege this morning.....We're camped at Nissen Bight, on the North Coast Trail, and a Coastal Wolf turns to stare at us. A sub-species of the Grey Wolf, these wolves are solitary and survive on clams, mussels and foraging on the beach; they are strong swimmers.
📚💙On VJ Day.....This book is not just an account of #sailing in 🇯🇵 but also an evocation of how the Japanese look at WW2, from today's perspective. www.amazon.ca/Sailing-Hear...
August 15, 2025 at 2:12 PM
📚💙On VJ Day.....This book is not just an account of #sailing in 🇯🇵 but also an evocation of how the Japanese look at WW2, from today's perspective. www.amazon.ca/Sailing-Hear...