Seraffyn’s European Adventures

Pardey Books, 3rd ed. 1998; 318pp; £12.95;

When a third edition volume includes several reviews from the one published some twenty years earlier there is little to add except that this is indeed a book first about people and then boats. The ship-handling matters - all without engine - are well told, but the delight is found in the maritime folk met by this happy North American couple during their two and a bit years voyaging in our waters and those of the Baltic to the Portuguese coast. The clearly printed soft-backed volume is pleasant to handle and the plentiful and interesting monochrome illustrations have reproduced reasonable well. The afterword, bringing the reader up-to-date on some characters and events met in the first edition, gives a fascinating counterpoint, as do the detailed descriptions of several yachts similar to Seraffyn. The glossary, however, is both too short and superfluous. The narrative ends as they approach the Straits of Gibraltar in November 1974; a neat lead-in for another of their Seraffyn titles. - EC