'Is Sailing to Purgatory a sailing book?' asks Tony of Newcastle. 'I skimmed over a few pages in the bookshop, but it seems to be about injustice, too.'
Tony is planning to get the book for his father, who shares his passion for sailing. 'I liked some of the cruising bit, but then a couple of pages after, it looked like a travel story. I had to smile at the travel bit, about the dancers in the Girly Bar. But my Dad's after sailing stories. Would it suit him? You're the writer. You say.'
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A dearly loved yacht ... in the mid-Atlantic, long before corrupt justice stole her from me. |
Tony, Sailing to Purgatory begins by reminding readers that there's a sea out there and it's wrapped round two-thirds of our world. It should be visited because it is ours and it is amazing to be out there.
The story's prelude gives a brief picture of my story. My mother warned of the dangers of the sea and especially of sailing solo.
And yet it wasn't the elements that endangered my life, that attempted to destroy me. It was my fellow man. Then I show the reader what my final voyage was all about.
About our amazing world
Some of it is a travel story, because it is about my farewell to the sea, a professional yachtsman's swallowing the anchor voyage. The story is about the sea, about our amazing world, and about life.
I visit islands, I encounter high drama, I worry about ageing, I meet a girl, there's a love triangle, I sail off alone on a long and dangerous final voyage. When I reach the other side, the love interest joins me. The future looks really wonderful.
Then visiting treasured friends with my fiancee and daughter, there's an ambush. I am rushed away for interrogation. It doesn't matter what I say, I am imprisoned.
It's true life
By now you might think I must have written a novel. But, no, it's true life, although life is turned suddenly into something more akin to death.
It takes almost two years of being locked away before the jury returns a verdict in the secret trial. I am sentenced to a longer term than the Lockerbie airline bomber for the nonsense of smuggling which I know I didn't do and I believe the prosecution knew it, too.
Tony, tomorrow, I will put a free download here of a chapter that is just about sailing. Well, perhaps a hint of more than just sailing, but essentially it relays the experience of voyaging singlehanded through the Atlantic from one amazing place to a really stunning island.
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