Saga of a Wayward Sailor

by Tristan Jones

A “unique and arresting” memoir of seafaring adventures from the small boat sailor and author of Ice! and The Incredible Voyage (Motorboat & Yachting). Tristan Jones was one of the most acclaimed sea-faring storytellers ever. The combative Welshman was born at sea on a ship off Tristan da Cunha. He dropped out of school at 14 to work on sailing barges, and then spent the rest of his life at sea—-first in the Royal Navy, then as a delivery skipper, then as a daring adventurer. SAGA OF A WAYWARD SAILOR tells the tale of one of his most exciting adventures. Jones sails through treacherous waters aboard the Cresswell, a lifeboat converted into a sailboat, struggling to survive against impossible odds. He makes it through violent storms, arrest by the Soviet Navy, and other extraordinary experiences. Join Tristan Jones and a host of other lively and intriguing characters, as this salty and humorous tale unfolds. 

Genres: Travel, Adventure, Nonfiction

276 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Arthur Jones, pen name Tristan Jones was a prolific English author and mariner. His stories, mostly about sailing, are a combination of both fact and fiction, and it is rather difficult to tell these apart.
He was an illegitimate child, and was raised mainly in orphanages. He joined the Royal Navy in 1946, and served for 14 years. After ending his career in the Navy, he bought a sailboat, became a whiskey smuggler, and scraped a living sailing the Mediterranean Sea.
After his left leg was amputated in 1982 (a result of health problems and accidents), he resumed sailing and sailed the trimaran Outward Leg from San Diego to London, then across central Europe by river and canal to the Black Sea, and then around south Asia to Thailand.
After the amputation of his right leg in 1991 he only returned briefly to sea, and he lived in Phuket, Thailand, he converted to Islam and took on the name 'Ali'.

Reviews

[Eugene · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible account of 8 years sailing and wandering much of the Western Hemisphere. A man, a 3 legged dog, and the Cresswell, a rough built 36 foot sailing ketch...if you like tales of adventure and derring-do, action and exploration, and the joys and sorrows of the open road, this is the book for you! From the Svalbard archipelago in the Artic Sea to the coast of Iceland, back across to Norway, via canals & Baltic Sea to the English channel and again via canal to the Mediterranean, and eventually past the Canary Islands and across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, north to Bermuda and through the Sargasso Sea back to Ibiza, Spain, where our intrepid narrator hauls up on shore and leaves the Cresswell behind....truly, one of my all time favorite reads!

[Joep · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maritime von Munchausen. Funny.

[Thomas Burchfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Research for my next novel, Captain Zigzag, is taking me across vast oceans of research (with no shore on the horizon). Some of the books I read land right in my boat. Others miss, but still manage some insight and a fair amount of pleasure.

Saga of a Wayward Sailor by TristanJones, is one of the latter. Jones was something of a notorious character in the last century, a yachtsman who sailed the globe, achieving the odd distinction of sailing at both the highest (Lake Titicaca in the Andes) and lowest (The Dead Sea) bodies of water on the globe, a stunt he recounts in his book The Incredible Voyage.

He also wrote other memoirs that, on examination, seem to expose him as true-life unreliable narrator. (His account of having served in the British Merchant Marine during World War II seems to have been easily scuttled by one researcher).

The rest can be read at at my page: http://tbdeluxe.blogspot.com/2017/12/macguffin-godzilla-and-couple-other.htmlt

Thanks!

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is written by the adventurer/sailor Tristan Jones and is based on some of his travels though Europe, to Africa and over the Atlantic. Written with humor and wit. His discriptions are so great, you feel like you're actually there. I also appreciate that he uses the same picture of himself on the cover of several different books.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A truelly great read, Tristan is a loveable rogue, travelling on the seas and making mischief in every town available. I only wish I had more interest in books like these because it was so well written.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious....I really enjoyed reading about Tristan's adventures on the high seas!

[Tuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

unbelievable single handed sailing tales. Tristan Jones is intrepid, very funny, and rarely rants. he's written about 3 or 4 of these.

[David]

Tristan Jones will always be on my Mount Rushmore of authors!

[R.Bruce Macdonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly entertaining with some of his best characters.

[Robert Beringer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some have questioned the veracity of Tristan's prose, but even if some of his experiences are enhanced, they make for such compelling reading that I don't care.

[Jeff Tollefson · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a character :-)

[Peter Wendt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plain fun. Tristan and his dog eating burgoo.