Reflections in a Sailor's Eyes (Paperback or Softback)

True Stories from Faraway

A selction of short stories from our three most popular books; Two's a Crew, Where Wild Winds Blow, and Around the World in Ever Increasing Circles, plus short stories published in Australian periodicals.

Jack began life in an American mega-city during the topsy-turvy time following WWII. He grew up amongst skyscrapers and super highways, smog and streetlights, so he rarely saw the stars and had few escapes from city life except for sandy beaches and beautiful surf. One memorable escape came when his parents took him on a donkey ride down into the gloriously carved Grand Canyon in a scary ride that awakened his love for the great outdoors.

Judith, aka Jude, had a completely different upbringing in a quiet north England town. Her family often explored the green hills overlooking the North Sea, fished for tiddlers in streams, and experienced thick North Sea fog and wild gales. Our honeymoon was a road trip through Africa, north to south, in a derelict VW van resurrected from a Scottish field. From South Africa, we came to Australia intending to earn enough to make it to Japan for Expo 1970. But once in the sunburnt country, finding space everywhere with a feeling of 'she'll be right', we were encouraged to not only start a family, but to also start the construction of a 12 metre yacht that we christened Banyandah, meaning "home on the water" She became our family's first home. After those strenuous, stressful years of construction, with little sailing experience and sons just two and three, we began a voyage into the unknown. Thinking about it now, baby-steps comes to mind. Frightened and unsure, lacking skills, with mountainous obstacles to overcome, in baby steps that grew into a sea roving life taking the four of us around the world in ever-increasing circles on "voyages of education". Pretty corals and shells and fishes, and people from all cultures filled our active minds, which focused our thoughts that this special planet is to be cherished. In addition to thousands of sea miles, we touched eighty countries, and experienced an amazing adventure in an odyssey that lasted not the one year first imagined, instead, on and on for the next sixteen.