The book started as a story for my grandchildren. The first part of a bigger story of how I came to meet their grandmother from Japan. I thought that by the time they might be curious, I’d be past telling it, and they’d never believe it anyway. Best to write it down while I still could.
So I did, and added lots of Chapter Notes, to explain things that if included in the main text, would have disrupted the telling of the story, but I thought nevertheless helpful and illustrative of the bigger story.
Then it was suggested I publish the first part as The Voyage of The Aegre, but then cost constraints, market expectations and publisher pressure, led to substantial cuts to the original manuscript and the Chapter Notes were removed as well.
But now, with the book established in the market and readers frequently writing to me about the story, I’ve decided to publish the Chapter Notes here on the website about the book—a sort of adjunct to the story. I’ll progressively publish them, and you’ll be able to link to them via the chapter titles below.
- Chapter 1: Learning to live
- Chapter 2: Ardmore adventure
- Chapter 3: A London winter and Scottish summer
- Chapter 4: The perfect boat
- Chapter 5: Another London winter
- Chapter 6: Fitting out The Aegre
- Chapter 7: Sea Trials
- Chapter 8: First passage: Scourie to Madeira
- Chapter 9: Madeira sunshine
- Chapter 10: On to the Canary Islands
- Chapter 11: TransAtlantic Passage
- Chapter 12: Barbados
- Chapter 13: Sailing the Grenadines
- Chapter 14: Across the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal
- Chapter 15: 4,000 miles in 21 ft
- Chapter 16: The Marquesas to Tahiti
- Chapter 17: Tahiti Sojourn
- Chapter 18: Disaster – coming soon