The sea takes no prisoners : offshore voyages in an open dinghy / Peter Clutterbuck.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clutterbuck, Peter, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ocean travel.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 205 pages)

Place of Publication:

Rearsby, England : Leicester WF Howes Ltd., 2018.

Summary:

This is a classic real-life story of derring do on the high seas, complete with extreme risk, last-minute ingenuity and many near-misses. Beginning in the 1960s, this book tells of the real life adventures of the author as a boy - a time of boarding schools, long holidays and an unbelievable (to today's parents) amount of freedom and danger. Encouraged by his parents (who lived abroad) to become more independent and self-sufficient, Peter decided to see how far he could get in his family's small open dinghy Calypso . Aged 16, he spent a winter restoring her, before pootling straight out into a force 7 gale and very nearly capsizing, after which he headed back to land to plan even more extreme adventures. Calypso was a Wayfarer, a small (16ft) and very popular class of open dinghy; a boat designed for pottering around coastlines and estuaries during the day. But along with the occasional brave crewmate, Peter managed to sail her across the Channel, through the Bay of Biscay, down the French canals and into the Mediterranean, then up into the North Sea and the Baltic to Oslo, living aboard for three months at a time. These were some of the longest voyages that anyone had ever achieved in an open boat, where (as Peter says) you 'have to be like a tightrope walker, concentrating on balance day and night, fully aware of the consequence of relaxing your vigilance'. He survived huge waves, nine rudder breakages in heavy seas, dismasting, capsizes, and hallucinations caused by sleep deprivation. He also managed it on a tiny budget, working as a farm labourer, hitchhiking everywhere, and at times living on one meal of cereal a day, to save the maximum amount for his boat. Charming, quite British in style, beautifully written and a lovely insight into a seemingly golden time, this is primarily a great read, but will be of huge practical use to anyone wanting to go that bit further in their dinghy. It also includes a lovely Foreword by world-famous yachtsman Brian Thompson.

Contents:

Cover

Half-Title

Dedication

Title

Contents

Maps

Foreword

Preface

Part 1

Prologue

1 Learning the Ropes

Broads and rivers

Hard preparations

Packing everything in

2 Venturing to the Open Sea

Out to sea

Mighty waves

Surfing out of control

Broken rudder

Interlude: ocean racing in two gales

Go west, young man

What else could go wrong?

Capsize

No land in sight and an overnight passage

3 Preparing for the Ocean

What had we learned?

The sea takes no prisoners

The sextant and the can of treacle

Making a dinghy into a home

4 The Atlantic Coast to the Mediterranean

Across the English Channel

Breakers at dawn

Onwards to France

Wild rides through tide rips

Deep blue rollers

Nearly wrecked at night

Three days and two nights at sea

153 locks

Thunderstorms and mistrals

Crewing for the America's Cup

Rough times in Marseille

5 To the Land of the Vikings

Heading North

Inside Holland

German sandbanks

Barely legal in Kiel

Planing without a rudder

Thick fog at night

A moonscape as Apollo 11 lands on the moon

Fog, high seas and big rocks

Swept away in the night

Light all night

Working as a docker to pay for a trip to the Arctic

6 More Atlantic Adventures

Could we cross the Atlantic?

Swept away after the oar broke

Calypso crosses the Atlantic

Epilogue

Part 2

Modifications to a Dinghy for Sailing Offshore

Sailing gear

Emergency gear

Navigation

Equipment for living aboard

Offshore Techniques

Safety

Heavy weather

Reefing

Sailing at night

Living Aboard

Cooking and eating

Sleeping

Stowage List

In normal sailing positions

Bow locker

Cockpit

Stern locker

Under floorboards

Provisions used in six weeks.

Items which usually wore out or got broken or lost in six weeks

Sailing with Children

Glossary

Plates

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Epigraph

Copyright.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4729-4569-7

1-4729-4570-0

OCLC:

1151189634