The following chapters and sailing stories are an amalgamation of research, of this author’s personal experiences, and embellished by my extrapolated imagination feeding off my experiences. Where truth ends and imagination takes over is up to the reader to determine. However, this book is mostly fiction. Some of the characters in the stories are real, but under advice I have changed names and made them fit the venue into which they are placed. There is no far-out fantasy here; the fictional occurrences correspond with actual historical events. I have also changed the names of the sailing yachts in the stories, with a couple of exceptions. Most references to places and times are real, but not all. I have utilized ‘coincidence’ as a mechanism for making things happen, but coincidence in real life can and has affected us all. Coincidence is like throwing fairy dust on reality; sometimes something magical occurs.
The principal character in the book, Ed Rogers, replicates many of my own adventurous
romantic dreams. Ed’s goal as a happy bachelor, as was mine for many years, was to experience as much of this marvelous world as time, money and fate would allow. Rogers, as my alter ego, had the good fortune to travel, sail and love many wonderful people and exotic places around the globe. Only a few years of his (my?) globe trotting and sailing are included in these stories. It is hoped that the sailing portions of the book will acquaint and educate the non-sailing reader (and at the same time not insult the experienced sailor) with various aspects of the day-to-day life aboard a well-founded cruising yacht. It is also hoped the stories will explain an adventurer’s attraction to the South Seas, distant lands and peoples that have so richly blessed the history of the South Pacific.
I have been told that there are two love stories here. I prefer to think there are many. I enjoyed the writing of this story, much more so than reading another author’s novel. The freedom of being able to write anything I wanted and to create people, places and things rather than sticking to reality is intoxicating. Much like the shores of the world’s major oceans, the boundaries of writing fiction are far apart. Lastly, I would like the reader to keep in mind that most of this story takes place in the time period between 1977 and 1982.
Thank you for opening these pages.
Enjoy your sail!
What people are saying:
First I have to confess I'm not a sailor, but man, after reading these tales I'd sign on in a heartbeat. Dan Feltham's prose flows as effortlessly as some of these boats flowed over the waters. The imagery will catch your imagination and soon you'll smell salt in the air and feel the wind blown mist on your face. You'll quail at alligator and crocodile waves when the seas snap at your rudder and seems to require your death. You will sigh with relief as the storm passes and once again at the incredible beauty of the South Sea Islands. There's adventure here in plenty for those who seek it but there's fun and love too, of women, of boats, and a deep abiding love of the sea. While exciting and entertaining, this book is also romantic in a way that is difficult to describe unless you've been beguiled by Dan Feltham's magical scenes and deft language.
In sum, if you are a sailor you'll love this book for the tremor of the lines and the snap of the sail when reaching for the wind. If you're not a sailor this book will make you want to become one--and it will make you start planning a visit to the South Seas for sure. You'll be doing yourself a huge favor by reading this book. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
-Raymond
This novel is an action packed love story/sailing lesson/adventure story/geography lesson/good guy versus bad guy/cliff hanger that kept me on the edge of my reading chair for 10 enjoyable days - I couldn't put the book down! By the time I finished the book, I felt as though I had lived the life of a Southern California sailor in the South Pacific who had experienced the rough seas and became part of the saga of the people of the South Pacific Islands. Thank you Dan Feltham for enriching my life with this wonderful sailing adventure that I will never be able to live in person - but now feel as though I actually had!
- Vincent