The Canary Islands are a stop on the Peggy Sue’s voyage around the world, remembered in Michael’s account through a photograph of himself diving from a rock into the sea. Though only briefly identified, the islands mark a moment when the family’s long passage included a chance to come ashore and play, before later stretches of the journey would bring greater strain and danger.

Place in the Voyage

The family set sail from England on September 10, 1987, with the Peggy Sue loaded with provisions for its planned circumnavigation. Michael’s later account presents the voyage through selected extracts from his log, a private record begun aboard the boat and preserved in his own conversational voice. The Canary Islands appear not as a detailed geographical description but as one of the places fixed in memory by a photograph.

A Moment Ashore

Among the developed photographs were images of dolphins, Michael at the winch, his mother at the wheel, and his father handling the mainsail. Another showed Michael diving from a rock into the sea during a stop in the Canaries. Set beside photographs of work aboard the boat and family life on deck, the image records a different side of the passage: a pause for swimming and play during the family’s journey.

Place in the Narrative

The reference to the Canary Islands is concise, but its form matters. The stop survives as an image recalled years later, one item in a family record that preserves both the labor of sailing and its pleasures. It contributes to the route’s texture without becoming a major episode in its own right: a point on the voyage remembered through what Michael was doing there, rather than through a crisis or a change of course.