Sailing Around Britain

Book excerpt: Kim Sturgess was a weekend sailor: he enjoyed club racing and several brief sailing holidays, but had never attempted a substantial expedition. Reaching the age of fifty focused the mind and he decided to sail around Britain. While many cruising sailors would not contemplate a 1900 nautical mile voyage, he broke the voyage into a series of day sails, making it an achievable ambition for him, largely single-handed, and for many other weekend sailors who might dream of sailing around their home island. This book tells the quirky traveller's narrative of the voyage and visits to forty-eight towns. Evoking the spirit of both Jerome K. Jerome with his Three Men in a Boat and Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World, Kim shares his thoughts and struggles, recounting how easy it is for anyone to become an adventurer here at home. But don't expect to always agree with him – he has been described as "the Jeremy Clarkson of yachting"!