Jaywalking The World is the YouTube channel of Stephen J Payne, a.k.a. Paynie, a late career British photographer/filmmaker who, after twenty-seven years of living and working in Los Angeles, recently returned to the UK to enjoy a slower pace of life aboard a motor cruiser on the canals and rivers of England.

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He initially settled on a 1977 Project 31 motor cruiser, but it was not long before he felt hampered by the small size and restricted range of his new home, and so in January 2020 he upgraded to a 1987 Birchwood TS37.

With the benefit of some RYA courses, some one-on-one tuition, and lots of practice, he eventually felt confident enough to skipper his boat solo from Dover to Calais, and is presently working his way south through the canals and rivers of France, with a goal of reaching the Med this summer.

He plans to continue working for existing clients remotely, which for him necessitates access to a reliable high-bandwidth internet connection. Hence a popular recent episode documents his installation and initial impressions of a Starlink satellite internet system.

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While the system is a long way from being suitable for use on small sailing vessels at sea, it does seem promising for those whose plans require predictable connectivity in between passages.

Given he is a professional filmmaker, the production values of his Jaywalking The World videos is unsurprisingly very high, and they contain some of the most stunning drone photography I’ve seen anywhere on YouTube.

At the same time, there remains a JFDI punk rock aesthetic that I find really refreshing. When he wants to try something new, he just goes for it, and doesn’t fret about making himself look stupid, or offending his audience with the occasional F-bomb.

A good example is an episode where he singlehandedly took his boat out from the Swale to spend a night on anchor in the Medway’s Sharfleet Creek. To say things didn’t go to plan would be an understatement.

In fact, I don’t think it would be unfair to describe it as a Charlie Foxtrot… but in the end, Paynie gets through it with humour and grace, and we all benefit from being reminded of the importance of familiarising ourselves with the anchoring equipment of any boat we set off on.