Author: Nick Grainger

Notes on Chapter 20: High and dry on Pago Pago are now available on The Aegre Voyage website. Chapter 20, the final chapter in the book, is about our arrival, stay and eventual departure from American Samoa.

In the Chapter Notes are photos of The Aegre being pulled out of the water and how it all went wrong; more about Somerset Maugham’s novel ‘Rain’; a TV interview that disappeared; what happened to the Barbados rum promised to boatbuilder Bob Macinnes; our leaving Pago Pago; the fate of The Aegre and more. Essential reading if you’ve read the book. These are the Notes on the final chapter. See https://nicholasgrainger.com.au/the-voyage-of-the-aegre-notes-on-chapter-20-high-and-dry-on-pago-pago/

Also available on The Aegre Voyage website are the latest photos of the boat inspired by The Aegre being built at Clydeside in Glasgow by Peter Matheson and his volunteer helpers. See https://nicholasgrainger.com.au/the-aegre-inspires-a-new-build/

For Christmas?

If you are receiving this you’ve probably already bought the book. Thank you for that. If you think a friend might like ‘The Voyage of The Aegre’ for Christmas, it is available as a paperback, ebook and audiobook. The first edition (which has fold-out flaps back and front) will probably sell out early in the New Year, possibly before. There are still copies in the UK, order through book shops, e.g. Waterstones, Shetland Times Bookshop etc, and I still have some copies here in Australia that I’m happy to sign and mail out. The Amazon edition (exactly the same content but no fold-out cover flaps) will continue to be available worldwide.

With the season’s best wishes to you all,

Nick Grainger, December 2024

Notes on Chapter 19: Sailing on to where? are now available on The Aegre Voyage website. After 4 weeks and 1,600 miles sailing under jury rig, we’re approaching land.

But we’re uncertain of our position, have no chart, no anchor, and a rig that’s poor to windward. What were our options? How might things have played out, and what actually happened? In retrospect, might we have made different decisions? A chance meeting 25 years later with someone who was on that coast that night gave me a new perspective that I explore in these Notes. See https://nicholasgrainger.com.au/the-voyage-of-the-aegre-notes-on-chapter-19-sailing-on-to-where/

Plus a progress update and photos on the boat inspired by The Aegre being built in wintery Glasgow by Peter Matheson and his volunteer helpers. See https://nicholasgrainger.com.au/the-aegre-inspires-a-new-build/

Thank you for your interest. If you are enjoying these Notes please forward this to a like-minded person. Thank you!

Nick Grainger 23 November 2024

Recently published on The Aegre Voyage website: Notes on Chpt 18 – Disaster; about the capsize of The Aegre; and more about how we worked out our latitude and longitude without a sextant. Also added to the website are the latest pics and name of the boat inspired by The Aegre being built in Glasgow. Plus another book added to the Lesser known but inspiring books page.

Nick Grainger – 1 November 2024

In this Post: Notes on Chapter 17: Tahiti Sojourn, in the book, The Voyage of The Aegre. Plus a link to the latest photos of the boat being built in Glasgow inspired by The Aegre; and a link to an interview with Peter Matheson, the builder of the Glasgow boat.

Julie and I paused in Tahiti to give The Aegre a refit. In Chapter 17, I tell of pulling The Aegre up onto the beach at Puna’auia and stripping the boat for a complete repaint and re-rig while continuing to live aboard her.

In the Notes on Chapter 17: Why Tahiti is French; How we were unwittingly radiated; The Aegre story in La Depeche de Tahiti; Our neighbours in Puna’auia, Varua and and Bobbes; breakfast with French yacht racing star Alain Colas; plus cruising companions and friends in Tahiti. Go to Chapter 17 Notes

Glasgow Visit: In September, I visited Clydebank, Glasgow, to meet boatbuilder Peter Matheson and see the boat he is building, inspired by The Aegre.

Later on this same morning, Peter, Murray and I visited the nearby studio of Sunny G Radio in Govan, Glasgow, where I interviewed Peter and Murray about the building of the boat. You can listen to this interview here: https://www.mixcloud.com/SunnyG103/book-boat-24-sept-2024/

You can see the latest photos of the boat being built here https://nicholasgrainger.com.au/the-aegre-inspires-a-new-build/

Thank you for your interest and support. A diminishing number of the First Edition of The Voyage of The Aegre book are still available; see How to Buy the Book

Nick Grainger 11 October 2024

Visit the Homepage of The Voyage of The Aegre https://nicholasgrainger.com.au/

In this Post: Notes on Chapter 16, in the Marquesas Islands and then our near-disastrous passage to Tahiti, 700 nautical miles south; progress on The Aegre inspired boat being built in Glasgow and details of ‘Meet the Author’ talks in the Netherlands and UK in late August and September 2024.

In the Notes: The Marquesas – some of the remotest islands on earth; what happened to solo circumnavigator Tom Blackwell? And the fate we so narrowly avoided in the Tuomotu atolls. See Notes for Chapter 16.

Glasgow update from Peter Matheson: I have completed the 10th plank now and… See the latest photos of the boat being built in Glasgow by Peter Matheson, inspired by The Aegre. See https://nicholasgrainger.com.au/the-aegre-inspires-a-new-build/

Meet the author of The Voyage of The Aegre: I will be in the Netherlands and the UK in late August and September 2024, speaking about The Aegre, the voyage and signing books:

• Saturday 31 August 15:30 HISWA te WATER boat festival in Lelystad, Netherlands.
• Saturday 31 August Drascombe Association, Netherlands, time & location tbc
• Sunday 1 September 15:30 HISWA te WATER in Lelystad 15:30, Netherlands
• Thursday 5 September, Glasgow, UK, Peter Matheson’s boatshed in Govan: Clydebank Traditional Boatbuilders, Rothesay Dock Clydebank by Glasgow G81 1LX https://nicholasgrainger.com.au/peter-matheson-and-clydeside-traditional-boatbuilders/
• Thursday 12 September, Ludlow, UK, details to be confirmed
• Other possible UK locations in September: No venues currently, but please get in touch with me if you are interested at nick@nicholasgrainger.com.au
• Lake District 8-10 September
• Derby, 14-15 September
• Cambridge 19-21 September
• London 23-25 September

Maybe I’ll see you there?

Nick Grainger

Home page of The Voyage of The Aegre

Notes on Chapter 15: 4,000 miles in 21 ft, are now available on the website for The Voyage of The Aegre: From Scotland to the South Seas in a Shetland boat.

In the Chapter Notes: More about how we got out of the windless Gulf of Panama, why The Aegre wouldn’t sail west, carrying water for 100 days, our deep-sea fishing secrets, and the landfall I’m proudest of.

See The Voyage of The Aegre: Notes on Chapter 15

Meanwhile, in Glasgow, Peter Matheson, building a boat inspired by The Aegre, reports, “I will have completed the ninth plank by Friday (12 July 2024). I’m fitting the engine seats just now, as I usually fit the engine before I finish the planking. Access to inside the boat is less of a problem then. I don’t have to keep jumping in and out of the boat; at 78 years of age, this has to be a consideration. I’m putting a 16 HP ‘Yanmar’ in the boat. If The Aegre could go halfway around the world without an engine, then 16 HP should be plenty.”

See progress on the building of the boat inspired by The Aegre for more photos

Visit the home page of The Voyage of The Aegre

Across the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal

Notes on Chapter 14 of The Voyage of The Aegre are now available on the book website. Chapter 14 tells of our passage across the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal. Rough, wet and windy, the passage led to some expensive breakages, and the requirement of an engine to go through the Canal added another complication. The Notes contain a little more information about these issues plus ten additional photos to those in the book. See Notes on Chapter 14 of The Voyage of The Aegre

Meanwhile in June this year Glasgow Boatbuilder Peter Matheson has been adding the frames and engine bearers to the 21 ft yohl inspired by The Aegre that he is building. Yes, the new boat will have an engine, anticipating a life fishing in the tempestuous waters of the Pentland Firth between the northern coast of Scotland and the Orkney Islands. See the latest build pictures.

Thank you for your interest and support,

Nicholas Grainger

Notes on Chpt 13 of the Voyage of The Aegre are now available: Sailing the Grenadines; more photos; can you help? Plus the book ranked as Best Seller on Amazon.

Visit the Notes on Chapter 13 of The Voyage of The Aegre: From Scotland to the South Seas in a Shetland boat. More background, links and photos. From Barbados to Grenada where we hauled the boat out for a bottom scrub and repaint. Then on, sailing north through the Grenadine islands to Bequia. Maybe you can help me trace an Ecuadorian yacht owner and the crew of a Canadian Navy ship who greatly helped us there?

Amazon ranking

Finally, Thank you for your support. On Amazon Australia The Voyage of The Aegre was ranked ‘#1 Best Seller‘ in the Sailing (Kindle) category, and #2 in Sailing (Books) on 11 June 2024.

Rankings on Amazon are based on a combination of sales, customer reviews/ratings, and other factors. Rankings are fluid and vary every day. A higher ranking leads to more people seeing the book. So if you enjoyed The Aegre story and would like to share it, please rate and/or review it wherever you bought it. Thank you!

See Notes on Chapter 13: Sailing the Grenadines

See The Voyage of The Aegre homepage

Notes on Chapter 12: Barbados, are now available on the The Aegre Voyage website.

In the Notes to Chapter 12 there is more about how the purchase of a high quality inflatable dinghy in Barbados influenced our survival thinking. Also more about two other boats similar in size to The Aegre with solo skippers, who sailed into Carlisle Bay from the other side of the Atlantic and anchored near us, plus more photos that aren’t in the book.

Also new on The Aegre website are more pictures of the building in Glasgow of the yohl inspired by The Aegre, by Peter Matheson, aided (and hindered) by his two killer cats. Peter is now onto the 7th plank.

Meanwhile Fathers Day is fast approaching in the UK and US (16 June 2024). But there’s still time to send Dad a copy of The Voyage of The Aegre. Available in paperback, eBook and on Amazon Audible. With Chapter Notes coming out every few weeks, it’s much more than a once off read. See How to buy the book.

Thank you for your support,

Nick Grainger

Visit the home page of The Voyage of The Aegre

Notes on Chapter 10: On to the Canary Islands and Chapter 11: TransAtlantic passage, are now available on The Aegre Voyage website.

In Notes on Chapter 10 there’s more about the Sirocco wind that hurtled in off the Sahara one clear night, and the Selvagen Island gold that we decided to give a miss, plus pictures of Santa Cruz harbour long before the marina. Also the trial setting of the square sail we’d planned for the NE Trade Winds.

The Notes for Chapter 11 on the transAtlantic passage contain four additional photos not in the book. Plus the little-known story of another vessel that had passed this way in 1890, Il Leone Di Caprera.

This 10 metre flush decked Italian schooner was sailed from Montevideo to Italy (well, nearly) by 3 Italian emigres living in Uruguay. Not a well known story outside Italy. I came across the story and photographed the boat in Milan in 2018 and have included it in the Notes on Chapter 11.

Also new on The Aegre website is an update with photos of the boat inspired by The Aegre being built in Glasgow by Peter Matheson and his volunteer helpers. Definitely worth a look.

And don’t miss this … Peter Matheson built the Orkney fishing boat Boy Peter which his daughter Lorraina uses for creel fishing for langoustine on Loch Fyne captured in a beautiful video – with views of Dunderave Castle, Inverary and Loch Fyne. The music is by Shetland fiddle sensation Steven Spence. For more of his music go to spenciestune.shop

Book availability: With a new agreement, The Voyage of The Aegre book can now be ordered easily through bookshops throughout North America, EU, Australia, New Zealand and more, in addition to bookshops in the UK, and of course Amazon. See how to buy the book.

Thank you for your support.

Nicholas Grainger