Slow Boat from China

Publisher: Sheridan House Inc, £15.95

Publication Date: 2006

CA Library Reference:

Belonging to the ‘sell-up-and-sail’ autobiographical genre, Slow Boat from China describes how the author and his Dutch wife ‘aided’ by their very characterful dog, Fluke, fitted out a 37’ steel ketch in Hong Kong left their home and sailed westwards. With the objective of Vancouver, their route through Singapore, Indonesia, the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian and Red Seas, the Mediterranean and the French canals was somewhat unorthodox! They coped well with considerable hazards at sea but had problems in the French canal and river system.

Having arrived in Holland, they stayed for three years in an ancient marina near to Rotterdam in order to recoup funds and then set out westwards once more. Their route took them down Channel and across Biscay to Lisbon, Porto Santo, Madeira, the Canary Islands and the Cape Verdes eventually crossing the Atlantic to Barbados in sixteen days. After a spell in the Caribbean, the trio traversed the Panama Canal without mishap. The final leg northwards to Vancouver found them fighting headwinds and a difficult home run. Eventually
the journey was completed successfully and the wanderers returned to their home city for the first time in eleven years. Not quite a full circumnavigation – and don’t we become blasé about such tremendous achievements? – but a good read about an epic journey. Divided
into bite-sized pieces of text Slow Boat from China is an excellent bunk-side book. The major disappointment, and therefore criticism, is the absence of decent maps or chartlets – there are two very small-scale sketch maps showing the route of Moonshiner but no detail, for example, of their track through the East Indies or the Caribbean to assist the less well-informed reader. - CH