SANDRA CLAYTON
Writer
ABOUT US
For some inexplicable reason people everywhere have tastes, talents, enthusiams and daydreams which have nothing whatever to do with their family backgrounds, jobs, education or everyday lives.
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We were no different. David had a liking for boats. I always fancied a house by the sea. As fate would have it, we were born, grew up, lived and worked about as far from the ocean as you could get.
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Something else that people everywhere have in common is a sense of time passing. It tends to kick in around the mid-fifties. This is when you start to wonder whether the level of health, energy and mobility you currently enjoy will still be there in another decade or two.
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It is also around this time that you begin to see one of your parents looking back at you whenever you look in a mirror, or catch sight of your passport photograph.
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It was these factors, combined with one of the wettest winters in living memory that triggered our decision to change our lives. We bought Voyager.
ABOUT VOYAGER
Vital Statistics
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Make/Model: Solaris Sunstream Catamaran
Length: 40 feet
Beam (width): 16 feet 6 inches
Engines: 2 x 27hp Yanmars
Rig: Bermuda Cutter (mainsail, staysail and genoa)
Launched: 1989
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Solaris built only thirteen Sunstreams and Voyager was Number 9. Sadly the boatyard was destroyed by fire before any more could be built.
It is said that boats are referred to as 'it' until its owners find one dear to their hearts, at which time 'it' becomes 'she'.
Voyager was a very comfortable, safe boat and our affection for her grew with every year we were afloat. She looked after us for almost 30,000 miles and in some hazardous conditions.
She was built on the south coast of England, at Southampton, but had spent most of her five years in a marina in Spain, where we found her.
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My first book, Dolphins Under My Bed, follows our journey from the south coast of England to the Channel Islands, down the Atlantic coasts of France, Spain and Portugal and into the Mediterranean.
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'Approaching from the sea, anchoring and going ashore, gives a quite different view of a country. Instead of a cramped plane, and a taxi-ride through industrial districts, you slip effortlessly into the life of a small coastal town or village.'
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Published by Bloomsbury London and New York it became a best-seller.
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An earlier edition of Dolphins Under My Bed was an Award Finalist in the travel category of The National Best Books Awards sponsored by USA Book News.
Turtles In Our Wake, my second book, explores some of the Mediterranean's loveliest islands and ends with preparations for an Atlantic crossing to the Caribbean.
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'With neither concierge nor tour guide, you rely on your own resources. Fortunately, people are unexpectedly kind and courteous. Even without a shared language, a smile and a polite request produces a light in the eye and a racking of brain for those English words not used since schooldays. But if they can't direct us to where we want to go, they take us there.'
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Published by A&C Black, London and by Bloomsbury, New York.
A previous edition, under the title Something Of The Turtle won second place in The Written Art Awards sponsored by Rebecca's Reads under general non-fiction. It was also an Award Finalist in the travel category of The National Best Books Awards sponsored by USA Book News.
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The third book in the series, A Thousand Miles From Anywhere, covers our journey across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and the Florida coast.
It has been published by Adlard Coles Nautical London and by Bloomsbury New York.
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'Crossing the Atlantic was a revelation in many ways, but none less so than the night that tons of blazing space junk fell into the sea just beyond our stern. And you remember all the times you’ve heard somebody in Huston saying blithely over the airwaves, "Oh, it’s perfectly safe. It won’t hurt anybody. It’ll just fall into the sea."'
A Thousand Miles From Anywhere became an Award-Winning Finalist in the travel category of the 2013 USA Best Book Awards, sponsored by USA Book News.
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My fourth book, Osprey Summer, follows our journey up America’s Atlantic coast, from the marshes and manatees of Florida to the rugged shores of New England.
And what nicer way to visit historic towns and cities than by simply stepping off your own boat? For instance, in the Old South:
‘Side streets between magnolia-shaded houses remain unpaved, as they would have been when southern gen’lemen rode their well-groomed horses down them. A white-painted wooden church with a very tall steeple glints in the sunlight. And you mentally shake your head to dislodge those early scenes from Gone With The Wind.'
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My fifth and final Voyager book, Islands in a Circle Sea, captures the great diversity and sheer magic of the islands to be found in and around the North Atlantic Ocean.
The lush, volcanic Azores. The coral cays of The Bahamas. Delightful Bermuda. The historic whaling ports of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. All the way, in fact, from Canada and Maine to England's Scilly Isles.
And for a two-man crew, a constant consideration is the weather:
'Inevitably, after a clear day or two, we will hit fog again, changing our surroundings into something other-worldly. Shrimp boats, with their nets up, loom slowly out of the greyness like dancers holding out their skirts in a ghostly pavane. Pelicans, looking even more like tiny pterodactyls than usual, float silently through the gloom.'
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For Young Readers
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Bullied at school, and with both parents currently mislaid, Abel sets off on a small boat to find his father. In the process, he embarks on the adventure of a lifetime.
It is also a voyage of discovery - not only of himself, but of the world around him and his place in it. Abel Seaman captures the magic of the sea and some of the captivating animals it contains.
And in helping them - a young whale with a plastic picnic fork in its mouth and a pelican trapped in an abandoned fishing net - Abel discovers just how much our own actions affect their lives.
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