WAYWARD SAILOR — in search of the real Tristan Jones. Anthony Dalton International Marine 2003

Many readers will have enjoyed Tristan Jones’ books, or his articles in Yachting Monthly and other periodicals. Anthony Dalton, who has form as an adventurer himself, has meticulously researched Jones’ life. Don’t read on if you wish to preserve your illusions! In reality it seems that Jones was not war hero Capt. Tristan Jones RN (Retd.), but plain Arthur Jones, a humbly born stoker in the post-war navy. He did become a delivery skipper (and a good one), and did have many adventures, which provided some of the background for his tales. Most of his writing was however wildly at variance with the facts of his voyages, perhaps half of it pure invention. Nevertheless this self-taught author’s tales did provide many people with a great deal of enjoyment.

CHANNEL CROSSING Sebastian Smith Penguin Group 2001

This book will particularly interest those who are familiar with the DCA’s South Coast waters. Much of it is general interest writing on various aspects of the English Channel, but this is the background to a controversial dinghy sailing epic. Sebastian Smith, who won two awards for his reportage of the war in Chechnya, decided on impulse that he wanted to sail across the English Channel by open boat. The problem was that he had no sailing experience. Undeterred and in almost total ignorance he purchased a Wayfarer, fortunately one equipped for cruising. He then cast around for somewhere to keep it, even in his ignorance applying to the Royal Yacht Squadron! Luckily again, he found a place in Keyhaven boatyard, and after a disastrous first attempt at sailing the boat, then found someone to give him three informal lessons in the rudiments of sailing.

From then on Sebastian, very fit and a powerful all-weather swimmer, trained rigorously and fairly continuously with only a beginner’s manual as a guide. He carried on through the winter, usually sailing single-handed and often camping on board. Initially he had little understanding of tides and at first carefully avoided the dreaded ‘Trap’ in Hurst Narrows, but fairly soon was coping well with severe wind and wave conditions. He had his Wayfarer rigged and strengthened for severe conditions, and studied navigation, weather etc. Just a year after his first ever sail he judged himself ready for a single-handed channel crossing, and sensibly chose to sail from Hythe (Kent) to Boulogne. (The shorter crossing from Dover to Calais would involve sailing through a higher concentration of shipping). On the day weather conditions were poor and deteriorating, and he made his single-handed crossing in pretty rough conditions. Arriving at Boulogne Sebastian gave thanks at the shrine of Our Lady of Grande Retours, and eventually sailed back with his girlfriend, presumably after waiting for much more moderate conditions.

After reading about Tristan Jones, one may wonder whether Sebastian has also glamorised the facts. As many of our members will be familiar with the places and perhaps be on chatting terms with some of the characters in this epic, no doubt some will check up. My feeling is that Seb has provided a reasonably accurate reportage of the events, and really did progress from absolute ignoramus to one of our most able and intrepid dinghy cruising skippers in just one year.

LEARNING THE ROPES Eric Newby John Murray 1999 (paperback 2000)

Eric Newby is one of our greatest travel writers (A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, Slowly Down the Ganges etc), and many readers will be familiar with his earlier book, The Last Grain Race. This is another shorter account of the same adventure, but with many more photographs (all taken by Newby, some from the rigging in severe weather). The story is that as a teenager in 1938 Newby joined the Finnish square-rigger Moshulu for the voyage out to Australia and back. On the voyage out they only once sighted land (a distant island peak), and similarly when rounding The Horn on the way back. They made the return voyage in the best time that year out of thirteen square rigged ships, which included well-known ships such as the Pamir, Passat, Padua and Lawhill.