Tristan Jones "Adrift"

[macdiver]

I read "ADRIFT" by Tristan Jones while on vacation last week.  This book covers the first two years ashore after voyaging 60,000 miles on a 21 foot (including bowsprit) boat. 

What an incredible man and story.  Without giving away too much of the story, his boat "Sea Dart" was impounded by UK customs for import taxes.  Tristan Jones was left homeless and penniless.  This story covers  how he got his boat back.  It includes some unbelivable insight into human nature.  Tristan Jones was truly a humanitarian.  I only hope that I can be half the man (and 1/4 the sailor) that he was.

Now I have to get a copy of "THE INCREDIBLE VOYAGE" which details the 60,000 miles he sailed on Sea Dart.

[CharlieJ]

 ;D

Just bear in mind that most of what Tristan wrote was pure fiction. Very entertaining fiction, but a sailor's yarn none the less. Including his story of his birth at sea- pure fabrication.

Here's a web site dedicated to the biography of Tristan Jones-"Wayward Sailor In Search of the real Tristan Jones" on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Wayward-Sailor-Search-Tristan-Jones/dp/0071402519

And here's and excerpt from that web page-

"His real name was Arthur Jones. He was born in Liverpool in 1929, the illegitimate son of a working-class Lancashire girl, and he grew up in orphanages with little education. Too young to see action in the World War II naval battles he would later write about so movingly, he joined the Royal Navy in 1946 and served fourteen unremarkable years."

Not to deny he WAS a sailor and DID do some of the things he wrote of.

We have 5 or 6 of his books and enjoy them tremendously. He's a very entertaining writer.

Oh- and I have a book named " Adrift" that  was written by Steve Callahan. I wasn't aware that Jones had one by the same title til today.

[macdiver]

Thanks Charlie,

I was not aware that these books were fiction.  Good thing his book was never on Oprah's reading list (ha ha).

Still a great read though.

[CharlieJ]

Not ALL of them were, nor were all his articles. His trip to Lake Titicaca was real, as was his trimaran sailing after he lost the first leg.

What ever, he WAS a great story teller and they are excellent reads. I'll be looking for his version of Adrift for sure.