The Accidental Sailor

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CRU0703

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Overview

The Unlikely Tale of Two Small Boat Voyages to the Mediterranean

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Product Details

Part Number: CRU0703

Edition: 2013

Printed and corrected to: No

ISBN: 9780957584907

Publisher: Imray Laurie Norie And Wilson Ltd

Author(s): Rod Heikell

Author: No

Format: Paperback

In 1976 Rod Heikell set off for the Mediterranean in Roulette, a 20 foot boat that should probably have never left sheltered waters. Via the French Canals and Biscay he somehow got there and sailed to Corsica, Italy and on to Greece. This book records the near disasters, and highs and lows of a voyage which shaped his life in ways he never imagined. He became the accidental sailor and developed a life-long love of sailing and exploring the seas.

In 1987 he took Rozinante, a Mirror Offshore 18, down the Danube, behind the Iron Curtain to the Black Sea and Aegean, probably the longest voyages one of these tubby little craft has made. These were simple voyages on small yachts with minimal equipment that shaped what Rod was to do in ways he never envisaged. It s a mystery, an accident he is fond of saying when asked how it all started.

Rod has gone on to write yachting guides to many of the Mediterranean countries, on the Indian Ocean and on routes and landfalls around the world. His latest book, The Trade Wind Foodie is on food, a subject dear to his stomach.

Rod Heikell

Rod Heikell was born in New Zealand and sailed hesitantly around bits of its coast in a variety of yachts. He tried racing in the Hauraki Gulf but was really not much good at it. In England he abandoned academic life and for no good reason other than curiosity bought Roulette, a 1950s plywood JOG yacht nearly 20ft long, and sailed it down to the Mediterranean. He worked on charter her and delivered yachts until, in ignorance of the scale of the task, he set off to write a yachtsman's guide to Greece. This was followed by guides for other countries in the Mediterranean. He has sailed back and forth between England and the Mediterranean, including a trip down the Danube and on to Turkey in Rosinante, an 18ft Mirror Offshore. In 1996 he took his forth yacht, Tetra, to SE Asia and back for the research for Indian Ocean Cruising Guide. Apart from sailing the 'wrong' way and back again the 'right' way across the Indian Ocean, he has done four transatlantics on his own yachts and also cruised extensively in other parts of the world on other yachts. He is currently back at the end of a circumnavigationand sailing again in his beloved Mediterranean.