Saga of a Wayward Sailor
Autobiographical sketches from 1961 to 1969, laced with rum, schnapps and strange encounters. They principally record a series of wayward voyages and delivery trips beset by nautical disasters, and the amazing chances which have so far prevented them from ending fatally. At the start it promises to be an adventure yarn for the reader who "always longed to run a trading schooner in the South Seas but became a chartered accountant instead". However, considerable admiration must be extended to an author capable of overcoming so much adversity, and whose homespun philosophy is, in his own words, "of great comfort to those at the end of their tether". It's quite a jolly read.(Cruising)Here's a rollicking, rumbustious yarn of small boat seafaring, packed with incidents and characters to make you gasp and stretch your eyes.(Practical Boat Owner)Jones's prose--a unique and arresting blend of the earthy, philosophical and the picaresque--and the sheer scale and tangential offshoots of his adventures, made him a wonderful tonic in the age of irredeemably dull books documenting yet another round-the-world race.(Motorboat & Yachting)