Before I started writing The Voyage of The Aegre, I gathered together and read all the old letters from the time, bits of diaries, early drafts of the story Julie and I had worked on long ago, magazine articles I’d written, and all the photos I could find. It took me a few years. Then, immersed in it, the memories flooding back, I started writing the story.
With so much material, it was difficult to decide what to include and what not.
Following publication, I started to receive letters from readers wanting more. I decided to progressively publish on the website a selection of the material I cut from the early versions of the story, as Chapter Notes — a sort of adjunct to the story. So here they are. I hope you find them interesting, but you’ll need to read the book first to get the best value from them.
- 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
- Chapter 19: Sailing on to where?
- Chapter 20: High and Dry on Pago Pago