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Saga of a Wayward Sailor

Tristan Jones author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Rowman & Littlefield

Published:25th Mar '95

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Saga of a Wayward Sailor cover

Saga of a Wayward Sailor is the engaging tale of Tristan Jones' sailing adventures around the North Atlantic aboard the Cresswell. Jones survives storms, dismastings, arrest by the Soviet Navy, being sunk by whales, and the smuggling of Edam cheese and Barbary apes. Through his eyes we get to meet an intriguing cast of dockside characters: Karl, the German fish-canning salesman; Pete, the Australian smuggler; Sissie, the Englishwoman who wheedles her way permanently aboard; and Nelson, Jones' three-legged dog.

Autobiographical sketches from 1961 to 1969, laced with rum, schnapps and strange encounters. They principally record a series of wayward voyages and delivery trips beset by nautical disasters, and the amazing chances which have so far prevented them from ending fatally. At the start it promises to be an adventure yarn for the reader who "always longed to run a trading schooner in the South Seas but became a chartered accountant instead". However, considerable admiration must be extended to an author capable of overcoming so much adversity, and whose homespun philosophy is, in his own words, "of great comfort to those at the end of their tether". It's quite a jolly read. * Cruising *
Here's a rollicking, rumbustious yarn of small boat seafaring, packed with incidents and characters to make you gasp and stretch your eyes. * Practical Boat Owner *
Jones's prose--a unique and arresting blend of the earthy, philosophical and the picaresque--and the sheer scale and tangential offshoots of his adventures, made him a wonderful tonic in the age of irredeemably dull books documenting yet another round-the-world race. * Motorboat & Yachting *

ISBN: 9780924486791

Dimensions: 210mm x 142mm x 19mm

Weight: 345g

272 pages