Product Description

A couple of quiet weeks sailing on the river Severn was the intention, 'Somehow things got out of hand...' Writes A J Mackinnon. 'A year later I had reached Romania and was still going.' Equipped with his cheerful optimism and a pith helmet, this Odysseus in a Mirror dinghy takes you with him from the borders of North Wales to the Black Sea-4900 kilometres over salt and fresh water, under sail, at the oars or at the end of a two rope-through twelve countries, 282 locks and numerous trials and adventures including an encounter with Balkan pirates. An epic voyage undertaken with courage and recounted with flair and humour.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9992 in Books
• Published on: 2002-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
A.J.Mackinnon (called Sandy) was born in Australia in 1963. He spent his childhood between England and Australia, travelling as a small boy with his family on the last P&O liners to sail between the two countries, a factor to which he attributes his life-long love of maritime travel. He was educated at the Pulteney Grammar School, Adelaide, and the University of Adelaide, completing a Diploma in Education and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, Linguistics and Anglo-Saxon. His teaching career started at Westminster School, Adelaide, where he taught English and Drama for four years. After this time he travelled overland to England by yacht, hitch-hiking, river-canoe and even horseback… spending a brief time in a Chinese prison after accidentally swimming into China, and being attacked by Komodo Dragons, amongst other experiences. England provided a somewhat tamer existence as he taught at the prestigious schools of Sherborne and Cheltenham, before becoming Head of Drama at Ellesmere College, Shropshire, for six years where he also taught English at all levels. Last year, ready for more adventure, he set off in a ten-foot open sailing dinghy from the school gates at Ellesmere, and nine months later had managed to row and sail all the way to Romania and the Black Sea… a journey of some four thousand miles, passing through twelve different countries and involving shipwreck, arrest, capture by pirates and becoming lost in the English Channel. He has just completed this illustrated book of his voyage, ‘The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow.' His interests include painting, philosophy, writing, conjuring and home-made fireworks, and he has written and directed a number of plays and musicals. After a two year period teaching in Argentina, he is currently back home enjoying his English and Drama teaching at the renowned Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia, where he also instructs students to sail Mirror dinghies in the Summer months. His students don't believe a word he says.

Excerpted from The Unlikely Voyage of Jack De Crow by A.J. Mackinnon. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
An excerpt from the book. The author contemplates the wisdom of sailing across the Channel in a ten-foot dinghy.

Ay, there's the rub. For here I was finally, at the wire, the end of the spring-board, at Dover itself. No longer could I put off the decision and the strategies, the call to Wilf or the choice to go solo. I had now to speak to the local people, the coast-guard, the yacht-club, the Harbour Master, everybody and anybody who could advise me about the Crossing. And it was here and now that I found an odd thing. For ever since I had first vaguely considered the idea, while I was still deep in the heart of Oxfordshire, people had been advising me in the strongest possible terms against such a course. Elderly couples cruising on the placid waters of the upper Thames in narrow-boats called Meadowlark or Buttercup had warned me of the speed and size of oil-tankers that ploughed the Channel day and night. Kindly landlords whose sole nautical experience had been regular weekly viewing of The Onedin Line twenty years previously seemed fully up-to-date on the casualty statistics pertaining to the North Sea. Whenever I had tried to introduce the idea of the gallant little ships of Dunkirk, The Snowgoose and all that, I had firmly been given more modern analogies, such as attempting to cross the M 25 at peak-hour on your hands and knees. But strangely, as I had approached the actual sea, people had become less dire in their outlook. The Dunsters had thought it was possible… with an escort of course… and the Royal Temple Yacht-Club members, at their most tanked-up, had been positively enthusiastic.
And here, now, in Dover itself, as I did the rounds, the attitude could best be described as blasé. When I tentatively said, "Um… er… call it mad if you will, but I'm thinking of taking my Mirror dinghy across the Channel, ha, ha, I know, crazy, eh? Any advice?" the response had ranged from bored to indifferent. The President of the Yacht Club said, "Yes, and…?" The Harbour Master said something along the lines of, "Really, yes, my seven-year old daughter sailed her Optimist across last July, got a pen-friend across there, you know what young girls are like, eh?" and various other seasoned sailors I met, picking up on the fact that I was after some reassuring advice, did manage to mumble something about, "Lovely weather for it. Wouldn't leave it too long, if I were you." When I finally rang the Coastguard and outlined my plan, I was relieved to hear a note of stern warning creeping into the voice on the other end. "Across to Calais, you say? In a Mirror? Right, now look here!
, I feel that I must most strongly advise you…"
"Yes, yes?" I asked, pencil in hand to take down some vital bit of marine wisdom.
"Are you writing this down? Good. Well, when you get into Calais Harbour…"
"C-a-l-a-i-s H-a-r-b-o-u-r" I wrote.
"And you turn to starboard…"
"S-t-a-r-b-o-a-r-d"
"There's a huge white building ahead that acts as a landmark, have you got that?"
"Yes, huge white building…"
"Good. Well, it's a restaurant, see, and whatever you do, don't have the mussels there. I did last August and I was as sick as a dog - anyway, it's over-priced. Apart from that, have a good crossing. Cheerio!"
And that was it, the sole piece of advice from the marine authorities about the crossing of the busiest shipping lane in the World in an unpowered Mirror dinghy. I went to bed that night singing to myself a jingle half-remembered from many years ago:

"Will I, won't I, will I, won't I, will I join the Dance?
The further 'tis from England, the closer 'tis to France!"

Interminably it revolves in my head as I try to place it. Isn't it something from Lewis Carroll, and something to do with a melancholy Mock Turtle? And isn't it a whiting or a Dover Sole making the invitation to the dance? Am I being invited by all the fishy, finny folk of the North Sea to join them under the briny blue, my bleached bones to dance to the tune of the tides in the salt and oozy depths?

"Full fathom five thy father lies.
Of his bones are coral made.
These are pearls that were his eyes…"

I'd have to check the weather-forecast for the next week or so, find a ‘window' as they say in nautical circles. I'd have a chance to visit the Castle tomorrow perhaps, brush up my knowledge about thirty-million year-old chalk at that other place maybe…

It seems I was to be given no excuse. The next morning was fine, so I went.

Customer Reviews

A One Man Laurel & Hardy trip across Europe
Like the Author, once you start this journey it is difficult to stop. This book is very difficult to put down.

As you breeze along the waterways and across seas with Sandy you find yourself saying "No! You can't? You won't? You shouldn't..." then you turn the page and he can, he will and he has; your eyes open wide and you read fervently onwards.

After one crisis is over you are calmed back into the beautiful journey, bumbling along serenely and naively into the arms of the next demon waiting beyond the horizon.

Whilst many of the literary quotes went over my head I found this a fantastically written story of eccentric daring-do with laugh-out-loud moments of extreme hilarity.

A real, live "Lord Of The Rings" journey full of near-death experiences told as if they weren't and real life experiences told like it was.

You have to read this book.

Incidentally whilst not putting down this book at 1 am, high up in the Taipei Hilton the other week I found my hotel bed shaking with laughter, when I stopped, the bed didn't and the contents of the min-bar spilled out onto the floor. It was then that I realised the Earth was moving! That's never happened with any other book I've read.

Well done Mr. Mackinnon!

The Unlikely Voyage of Jack De Crow
A beautifully written book - but then you would expect that from an English teacher! Full of hilarious escapades, frightening experiences and gloriously colourful accounts of this unbelieveably exciting yet delightful journey! Should be on the bookshelf of every Mirror Dinghy owner and on the reading list of every school! I look forward to the author's next publication - which I hope will be forthcoming in due course!

A great read!
This is without doubt one of the best books I have ever read. SO difficult to put down, very entertaining. Don't worry if you don't like sailing, just buy it if you like reading and laughing at the same time!