Octogenarian Paul Packwood from Ipswich describes a 58 day, single-handed cruise in his 18 foot sailing boat, Plover.

Not a complete circumnavigation of the British Isles but a thumbnail odyssey round the south coast of England, into the Severn Estaury, into the Kennet and Avon Canal, down the Thames and back to Orwell.

All is not smooth sailing. In difficulties off the Cornish Coast, he is towed into port by a lifeboat. A collision costs him a broken thumb. Undaunted, he completes the voyage and brings Plover back home to the river Orwell.