Written by John Ridgway and published by Heinemann in 1978 (OUT OF PRINT)

There has never been a book about an ocean yacht race like this.

John Ridgway rowed across the North Atlantic with Chay Blyth in 1966. He wanted to mark the tenth anniversary of the John Ridgway School of Adventure at Ardmore, on the far north west coast of Scotland, with an unusual adventure that could be undertaken while the School was closed for the winter. He and his wife Marie Christine decided to try and sail right round the world in the few months available, with a crew of Instructors from the school. The core of the plan was that the adventure should be closely linked with the continuing work at Ardmore; so they chose a 57’ ketch that- while it may have lacked the lines of an ocean racer – would be most suitable for the sail-training at Ardmore. Eventually they decided to enter the 1977-8 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race to lift their own performance.

In this book, compiled largely from the separate diaries they kept throughout the eight and a half month voyage, the Ridgways tell their whole story. From raising the finance by loans and sponsorships, to the psychological and other pressures associated with life on board shared for long, hard weeks at sea in some of the toughest conditions in the world. Eleven men and a woman, united by a common aim but divided by age, temperament and experience. To add to the tension, a two man TV crew was on board from beginning to end. They had a free hand to film and record the action and reaction above and below decks – the good times and the bad, the excitement of competitive sailing, the encounters with wild life and ice bergs, together with boredom, squalor and discomfort, explosions of anger and frustration.

Much more than an engrossing travel-and–adventure yarn, this is the sometimes touching, sometimes hilarious, but constantly absorbing human story of the boat and crew who went round the world with Ridgway.

Postscript in 2003 by John Ridgway.This was a real test. I soon came to understand how Francis Drake executed his best friend while only a quarter of the way round the world. But it was
such good experience for me too. Thank goodness Marie Christine stuck it out to the very end…

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