When Nick Mason (15) and Sebastian Page Franklin (16) announced they were going to sail the 160 nautical miles around the island of Mallorca to raise money for charity, they had a knackered boat and very limited sailing experience. With the help and enthusiasm of 563 Very Nice People, they won a Best of British competition and embarked on a life-changing adventure. Meet Freddy the bird; Mo, Jo and the awesome chicken; the Hollywood film star who adopts grubby teens; the indestructable poo and Brad - the Aussie with a shark fetish. Follow the boys through their brushes with angry life guards, getting caught out in huge seas, encounters with "mega fauna", being run down by fishing boats and very nearly losing their dinghy forever ...

A father and son sail 17,000 miles in a 25 foot boat they built together.

In August 1939, U-48, commanded by 'Vaddi' Schultze, took up a waiting position around England. Schultze showed himself to be a notable humanitarian: he addressed signals to Churchill giving positions of ship sinkings so that crews could be saved. By 1 August 1941 this most successful boat of World War II, had sunk 56 merchant ships one corvette.

Christian Beamish, a former editor at The Surfer’s Journal, envisioned a low-tech, self-reliant exploration for surf along the coast of North America, using primarily clothes and instruments available to his ancestors, and the 18-foot boat he would build by hand in his garage. How the vision met reality – and how the two came to shape each other – places Voyage of the Cormorant in the great American tradition of tales of life at sea, and what it has to teach us.