The book's late, but here's a little look inside

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‘The reader will be enthralled as Paul, former Fleet Street journalist turned professional yachtmaster, takes us along on his ‘swallowing the anchor’ voyage, his retirement from the sea.

'This self-confessed newish ancient mariner … has spent almost a lifetime sailing solo, as both an ocean going competitive yachtsman, as a DoT Commercial Yachtmaster, and during his circumnavigation to become a singlehanded Cape Horner ... Sailing to Purgatory has all the roller coaster elements of a heart stopping adventure — drama on the high seas, observing life ... undersea volcanoes, a love interest, and waves high enough to scare the pants off most of us.’ - Brenda Vowden, journalist, avid reader

Home from the outside ... St Helenans,
'Saints', round their South Atlantic
island in Midshipman,
en route for Stockholm.

Enterprising forebears ... The house Paul's father designed, and the car his paternal grandfather designed and built.

Running repairs ... crewman Declan checks rig fittings on the superyacht, Midshipman, which Paul sailed from the Cape to Sweden.

Sail power ... Gavin's Howe's beautiful yacht in the Mediterranean.

Rescue in the Southern Ocean ... Yachting World's international edition this month features Paul and Captain Fantastic in its Great Seamanship series.

Pat and Gerry Adamson, two wonderful supporters get Spirit of Pentax ready for her circumnavigation.

Home sweet home ... St Helena islanders, after a voyage round their island home on the superyacht, Midshipman.

Baptism of a Cape Horner ... Lady Chichester names Spirit of Pentax in a ceremony at Brighton Marina.

Homeward Bound 2 is prepared for her attempt on the longest open boat record.

Tri trials ... testing Paul's entry in the singlehanded race across the Atlantic are great friends Ron Pell, Jerry Freeman plus a keen helper.

Cover up ... Bob Abrahams works on cover ideas for Sailing to Purgatory.

Stocking up for 18 months ... Last minute farewells before Spirit of Pentax and Paul left on the long route to become Cape Horners.

Death of a racer ... Baltic Wind flounders after running into a container in the South Atlantic. Paul and a lady shipmate spent eight worrying days in a liferaft.

Apologies for so far it appears that no-one has been able to get their hands on a copy of Sailing to Purgatory. I believe that Tomas bought a Kindle version from Amazon. So far, though, not even your humble writer has seen a hard copy.

To make sure that aspiring readers aren't, well, left entirely empty-handed this weekend, here's the Prelude from the book

The Prelude sets the scene, of course, for the story. This is how it begins ...

To cross an ocean on your own, to achieve it singlehandedly with only you
on the sailing craft, is the most exciting, most exhilarating, most
satisfying thing a human can do. The open sea sweeps you into another
universe, a virtual Paradise which occasionally transforms into the
opposite yet always offers the excitement of plying an astonishing
unworldly best of our world of constantly changing seascapes and seasons
and sun angles and star families and life. However, be warned: solo
ocean-going is a bit more risky than crossing a busy road.

The complete Prelude is here as a downloadable PDF document. I really hope you will approve, and with sincerest apologies for the delay. I am told it has been caused through a delayed delivery from the printers. Apparently the order only arrived at Olympia's offices on Friday afternoon.

You can download the Prelude here

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The book's late, but here's a little look inside

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