SEIZE THE DAY before it's too late. There's a wonderful world out there to explore. Today, many forty and fifty-year-olds look with dismay at their jobs and pension prospects - perhaps it would be better to seize the day and enjoy twenty active years of happy freedom in charge of your own destiny. If you are healthy and enjoy travel - go for it. In 1982, in our late forties, we sold the house and cars, cashed insurance policies, invested two thirds, then spent the rest on our boat to sail away. We haven't regretted it for a single day.
We had been sailing dinghies and a Folkboat for twenty years but have never looked upon ourselves as real sailors, but here we are, Peter and I, twenty five years later, having completed a 65,000 mile circumnavigation by ourselves in our own boat. Just an ordinary couple with no introductions to auspicious personages, no rally guide to pave the way and little money. We have had a fantastic time and been welcomed into grand houses and native huts, enjoyed the world and relished our freedom.
This book is a brief account of the preparations, voyaging, and of the remote Pacific Islands, where, previously, the only visitors were missionaries, government officials, traders or slavers. Thanks to advances in electronic navigation, we were among the privileged first visitors to arrive just as friends and be welcomed into island life. It also tells of robbery, shipwreck and the self-discovery of ourselves and our relationship.