Oct 9, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min · 16 segments
This is the second installment in my reading of Cruising Under Sail by Eric Hiscock, from the 1987 edition. This book has been enormously important in my own sailing development. I first started…
[laughs] Hey, I realized, though, there was an opportunity, and the opportunity was that in my bag was this.
Now this, to me, is probably, uh, the greatest access point into sailing, uh, that happened to me apart from actually stepping onto the deck of the first ship I worked on, Ji Fong, in Hong Kong in 1996.
This book, um, not this exact copy, although I could literally give you this book's lineage and the one I had before its lineage.
When I first met her and I went back to her place and I saw this on her shelf, I knew it was love.
She's, she's, uh, spent her time working her way through this tome, so we have a, a mutual appreciation.
Um, it can't be updated by the original author anymore, Eric Hiscock, but, um, he would have had he lispa- lived past 1986.
But in the amount of time that he lived, "The Wanderer" books and, uh, the "Over the Horizon" books, um, he and his wife, Susan, uh, on board a succession of boats called Wanderer, uh, sailed in the most kind of, I think the most glorious part of, like, cru- cruising exploration, which was, um, the, probably, like, the '20s, '30s, '40s, because the places they were visiting then were so different.
The South Sea islands of the 1920s, um, if you read Robinson's book, um, oh, uh, "Deep Water and Shoal," is that right? Yes, by W.A.
It's basically the Stone Age, without taking anything from those cultures or anything else, but in terms of what was going on, apart from the missionaries going in, which he was very ambivalent about, um, the effect of the missionaries.
He wrote an entire chapter, I think it was chapter 23 or something, which was, like, how bad the missionaries were at that time.
But the region they were coming from, the American Northeast in the '20s and '30s to the South Sea islands in the '20s and '30s, then think about the South Sea islands in the '50s and '60s after the Second World War had gone through there.
Um, so Eric Hiscock was there at that time and then went on right through to the early '80s, always writing, always sharing his experiences.
And this book, for me, I, I can't say, like, I know exactly where it comes in his, uh, anthology or what have you, but this book, I bought a copy of this for my father.
Probably my mum bought it and then said, "Okay, this is your gift for your dad" on my dad's birthday, um, when I was probably around 10 years old, okay? So it goes into the bookcase.
I set off for Hong Kong in 1996 as a volunteer to go and work for Outward Bound, and I know that there's a tall ship, and so I think I take...
[laughs] Hey, I realized, though, there was an opportunity, and the opportunity was that in my bag was this.
Now this, to me, is probably, uh, the greatest access point into sailing, uh, that happened to me apart from actually stepping onto the deck of the first ship I worked on, Ji Fong, in Hong Kong in 1996.
This book, um, not this exact copy, although I could literally give you this book's lineage and the one I had before its lineage.
When I first met her and I went back to her place and I saw this on her shelf, I knew it was love.
She's, she's, uh, spent her time working her way through this tome, so we have a, a mutual appreciation.
Um, it can't be updated by the original author anymore, Eric Hiscock, but, um, he would have had he lispa- lived past 1986.
But in the amount of time that he lived, "The Wanderer" books and, uh, the "Over the Horizon" books, um, he and his wife, Susan, uh, on board a succession of boats called Wanderer, uh, sailed in the most kind of, I think the most glorious part of, like, cru- cruising exploration, which was, um, the, probably, like, the '20s, '30s, '40s, because the places they were visiting then were so different.
The South Sea islands of the 1920s, um, if you read Robinson's book, um, oh, uh, "Deep Water and Shoal," is that right? Yes, by W.A.
It's basically the Stone Age, without taking anything from those cultures or anything else, but in terms of what was going on, apart from the missionaries going in, which he was very ambivalent about, um, the effect of the missionaries.
He wrote an entire chapter, I think it was chapter 23 or something, which was, like, how bad the missionaries were at that time.
But the region they were coming from, the American Northeast in the '20s and '30s to the South Sea islands in the '20s and '30s, then think about the South Sea islands in the '50s and '60s after the Second World War had gone through there.
Um, so Eric Hiscock was there at that time and then went on right through to the early '80s, always writing, always sharing his experiences.
And this book, for me, I, I can't say, like, I know exactly where it comes in his, uh, anthology or what have you, but this book, I bought a copy of this for my father.
Probably my mum bought it and then said, "Okay, this is your gift for your dad" on my dad's birthday, um, when I was probably around 10 years old, okay? So it goes into the bookcase.
I set off for Hong Kong in 1996 as a volunteer to go and work for Outward Bound, and I know that there's a tall ship, and so I think I take...
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