A “unique and arresting” memoir of seafaring adventures from the small boat sailor and author of Ice! and The Incredible Voyage (Motorboat & Yachting). Tristan Jones was one of the most acclaimed sea-faring storytellers ever. The combative Welshman was born at sea on a ship off Tristan da Cunha. He dropped out of school at 14 to work on sailing barges, and then spent the rest of his life at sea—-first in the Royal Navy, then as a delivery skipper, then as a daring adventurer. SAGA OF A WAYWARD SAILOR tells the tale of one of his most exciting adventures. Jones sails through treacherous waters aboard the Cresswell, a lifeboat converted into a sailboat, struggling to survive against impossible odds. He makes it through violent storms, arrest by the Soviet Navy, and other extraordinary experiences. Join Tristan Jones and a host of other lively and intriguing characters, as this salty and humorous tale unfolds.

From the acclaimed teller of such classic yarns as A STEADY TRADE, THE INCREDIBLE VOYAGE, and HEART OF OAK, ENCOUNTERS OF A WAYWARD SAILOR is wonderful collection of true stories from one of the great storytellers of the sea. Drawing on experiences from a lifetime at sea, Tristan Jones uses his acute powers of observation and his gift with for telling tales to transport us aboard boats struggling through savage gales, sweltering through parched calms, and sliding down the trade winds through beautiful, phosphorescent seas. With a special poignancy and his unique, wry sense of humor, Jones brings back to life people--like sailing adventurer Bill Tilman, long-distance voyager Bernard Moitessier, and pioneering woman sailor Clare Francis--as well as the places and boats lost to time. He recalls his favorite ports, his treasured cities, and his most memorable voyages.

"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." "Arthur Jones then bought an old sailboat and tried his hand at smuggling whiskey cross-Channel. In his early thirties he sailed into a Mediterranean limbo, scraping a living from charters by day and haunting the bars of Ibiza by night. When he was drunk, which was often, he could be loud and obnoxious and had the scars to prove it. He had no family, no attachments, no accomplishments." "Then came a midlife sea change. Arthur Jones looked into his future, imagined greatness, and began to claw his way to it. Having taught himself to sail, he taught himself to write. He was a natural at both. As Tristan Jones, in his midforties, he sailed out of Brazil's Mato Grosso and into a Greenwich Village apartment to write six books in three years and reinvent his past." "The Tristan Jones of his books was born in a storm at sea in 1924 on his father's tramp steamer; was torpedoed three times in epic World War II engagements; completed the first circumnavigation of Iceland; traveled farther north and farther up the Amazon River than any sailor before him; and sailed more than 400,000 miles, 180,000 of them solo. Readers loved his books and crowded his lectures and signings. He had a bard's voice and a street performer's delivery. He had more reknown than he could have dreamed." "Having invented a life, Tristan Jones tried to live it. After the amputation of his left leg in 1982 he sailed more than halfway around the world. He lost his right leg in 1991 yet still returned briefly to sea. But as his body failed him, so too did his spirits. It was as if the life from which he'd bodily lifted himself were pulling him down again. He died a bitter man."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved