After a low-key departure...

.....arrival at the first port of call includes a visit to a waterfront bar, with predictable debacle leading to a drunken, long after midnight arse-over-tip immersion in a filthy part of the harbour.

Floundering about in a scum of waste oil, raw sewage, and not so occasional knotted off condoms, And that isn't the end of it; later in the yarn it becomes necessary to give credit where credit is due to a well versed, even if rather too talkative, Liverpool, Lime Street whore,

But the narrative offers far more than these embarrassing interludes. This voyage, to what turns out to be an unusual part of Davy Jones's kingdom, provides a well-taken opportunity to appreciate and record the alluring beauty, majesty and the undoubted cruelty of the sea, set out as full blooded seafaring adventure.

This is the Val Howells who took part in the first singlehanded transatlantic yacht race in 1964.

394 pages. PB.