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The Incredible Voyage: A Personal Odyssey
In a salty, slashing style, Tristan Jones unfolds his extraordinary saga—a six-year voyage during which he covered a distance equal to twice the circumference of the world—revealing both a rich sense of history and an insuppressible Welsh wit.
With a singleness of purpose as ferocious as any hazard he encountered, Tristan Jones would not give up—even after dodging snipers on the Red Sea, capsizing off the Cape of Good Hope, starving in the Amazon, struggling for 3,000 miles against the mightiest sea current in the world, and hauling his boat over the rugged Andes three miles above sea level to find at last the legendary Island of the Sun. And beyond lay the most awesome challenge of the tortuous trek through 6,000 miles of uncharted rivers to find his way back to the ocean.
With a singleness of purpose as ferocious as any hazard he encountered, Tristan Jones would not give up—even after dodging snipers on the Red Sea, capsizing off the Cape of Good Hope, starving in the Amazon, struggling for 3,000 miles against the mightiest sea current in the world, and hauling his boat over the rugged Andes three miles above sea level to find at last the legendary Island of the Sun. And beyond lay the most awesome challenge of the tortuous trek through 6,000 miles of uncharted rivers to find his way back to the ocean.
410 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
73 people are currently reading
600 people want to read
About the author
Tristan Jones
58 books28 followersLibrarian 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'.
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'.
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July 11, 2022
The Incredible Voyage
Author: Tristan Jones
Publisher: Early Bird Books / Open Road Integrated Media
Publishing Date: 1977
Pgs: 432
Disposition: Hoopla eBook via Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
=======================================
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
Follow the supreme adventurer, Tristan Jones, as he takes a solitary and intrepid six-year voyage on his small craft, The Sea Dart. Covering a distance twice the circumference of the globe, from the lowest body of water in the world—the Dead Sea—to the highest—Lake Titicaca in the Andes—Jones finds himself "a thousand times beyond the limit of endurance." With tenacity stronger than any obstacle, Jones refuses to give up his adventure, even after falling prey to several disasters that could have killed him. Struggling against the mighty current of the Amazon, hauling his boat over the Andes Mountains and capsizing off the Cape of Good Hope do not discourage him.
This gripping story is a testament to his indomitable spirit and thirst for danger.
_________________________________________
Genre:
Travelogue
Adventure
Non-Fiction
True Story
Sailing
World Record
Biography
Nautical Fiction
Why this book:
I love this book. I’ve read it three times before. The first time I read it, I immediately read it again. And I read it a third time about 25 years ago. Yes, some of it is no doubt a cock-and-bull fable, but it is a good read.
_________________________________________
The Page 100 Test:
√◄ - good to go.
∞◄ - read on.
Favorite Character:
Conrad is a great character.
Tristan’s running back to stand the dock until Sea Dart was out of sight being shipped home from Montevideo to England is the most in-character thing Tristan does in this entire book.
Favorite Scene:
Considering the era and where they were the pucker factor was probably incredible when the heavily armed and belligerent-sounding Israeli Naval Patrol Craft spotlighted the Barbara as they coasted off Lebanon southward towards Haifa.
Favorite Concept:
6,000 miles of desert coast without seeing a tree from Israel down the Red Sea to Barawa,after they gained the Indian Ocean sounds like a rough stretch. No wonder they took turns staring at the clump of trees like deranged men. I mean…damn.
Language migration and absorption, after the Age of Sail, Swahili inherited a word "goddamni manowarri" which came to mean any foreign sailors in the area of Mozambique and Madagascar, because the British, French, Dutch, and Portuguese, invariably, referred to one another as some similar sounding term.
Best Line:
"In extremis, survival is the result of being angry with yourself for being a bloody fool!" Amen, Mr. Jones. Amen.
Hmm Moments:
Jones reminds me of my Uncle Robert.
I wonder if the face to face with Emperor Haile Selassie actually took place.
"Eventually, we reached Puerto Suarez, the Bolivian frontier town. The South American Handbook states that if is "fit for neither man nor beast." I will go further and say that it is the asshole of the Americas, north and south! It consists of a few unpainted, rotting wooden shacks slouched around railroad sidings, the lines of which are overgrown with jungle and alive with mosquitoes. On each side of the siding is a noisy fog-ridden swamp of fetid, stagnant water that stinks to h high heaven. During the twilight hours millions of mosquitoes rise off it, crowding the night air so thickly that there is hardly room between them to see the giant moths, which smash headlong into every light they can find. Over all this hovers a smothering, dank heat, making for an experience rather like putting your head into an oven full of rotting rats." - You get the impression that he really doesn't like that place. And that’s his commentary on it after being in two jails…at least two jails in South America and running/sailing for his life a few times since leaving Israel and rounding Africa.
Uhm Moments:
Well what the hell did Tristan expect sailing into South Africa in that era with a Black crew member? At least he did the right thing and stood up for his men, but geez. Bad planning. Bad form. Apartheid South Africa sucked. Course the decision to try the Atlantic route instead of the Pacific one made rounding South Africa necessary. Despite his bluster, he could've gotten them all arrested or killed. And following through on his threat to cast off and try the run to Brazil without resupply and some TLC on the boat would've probably left them all floating in the Atlantic somewhere with the boat on the bottom of the ocean.
Calling the Ball:
I read this for the first time when I was in middle school. The similarities with Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt are there. The writing is similar. I was much too naive a reader at the time to catch it. I read this first and discovered both the Clive Cussler novels and Ian Fleming at about the same time. I think that Cussler, Jones, and Fleming would probably have all hated each other. Fleming would’ve beaten the pants off the other two at cards. Probably drank them under the table too.
WTF Moments:
After the big deal the authorities in South Africa made about allowing Alem to be working and sleeping on the boat with white men, I wonder at the self-imposed bureaucratic hoops they had to jump through to get him on a plane back to Ethiopia when his term aboard Barbara was up.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
So he sailed on the Dead Sea, but not in the Barbara or the Sea Dart, just an unnamed skiff. The record is that of sailing a sea-going vessel on the lowest and highest bodies of water in the world isn't actually broken. That's disappointing. I didn't remember that from previous readings. I understand the limitations. But while the man sailed on both and all the waters in between, the boat didn’t. Seems to me that the record could have an addendum added to it, if someone had the balls to attempt it with a single boat.
Probably bullshit, but the idea that in his first afternoon in Colombia, as he's waiting for the harbor master to appear, someone stole onto the Sea Dart, with as small as she is, and lifted his shoes while he took a siesta on deck is hilarious. So, he was robbed...and robbed again...and robbed again...and then, arrested. +++ "When in danger or in doubt, hoist the sail, and fuck off out."
The Sigh:
I disagree with Jones on the conquistadors. He abhors their rape of the Incan Empire, but respects their efforts. I don't. Every story does the conquistadors no honor. Stories that do portray them as heroes, when you peel back a few layers they are shown as the villains of the piece, right alongside the clergy who went with them to gather souls and gold, more of the later, less of the former. Heroic Anglo Narrative, hello.
A Path I Can’t Follow:
Running the gauntlet from Israel down the Red Sea to Ethiopia was a near thing. Knowing now that a lot of this is a fish story doesn't detract from it at all. Glad wide-eyed, impressionable me didn't join the navy or merchant marine based on the tall tales aspect of it all.
Suspension of Disbelief:
Uhm, vampire bats attacking people in the Amazon? Tristan writes like this is commonplace, but PBS suggests that this is rare. I’m taking PBS’s side in the debate and that the bats are getting a bad rap.
The Nazi, former Nazi, yacht club on Lake Titicaca is probably a fish tale, well told, but probably horse hockey.
Not sure that I believe that Sea Dart was there. With as much detail as he includes, I believe that Tristan made the trip, but everything after his leaving Barbara may be a fable. It's a good fable.
Right there, he hadn't planned on crossing the continent, but he had the St. Nicholas gifts for Christmas Day in Brazil? This feeds the idea that parts of this aren’t whole cloth.
Turd in the Punchbowl:
Pizarro is as much or more of a SOB as Cortez ever was. What he did to Atahualpa did indeed seal the fate of South America and all her peoples, but her fate was sealed when the Pope gave his blessing to Spanish and Portuguese adventurism in the Americas. As surely as when Columbus and Amerigo voyaged westward.
We get it, Jones. Some people around the world have different ideas about bathing, hygiene, sewer, and sanitation. But, dude, you're from the era of Austin Powers' teeth. Maybe pump the brakes a bit, you elitist, yacht prig. Hell, you stated that you've pulled some of your own teeth, plural, and made no mention of dentures. I realize I'm arguing with a dead man. I'm arguing with a world that was. Or rather one man's perception of that world. I just wish he could've gotten out of his own way and let an awesome story tell itself.
Wisdom:
Jones talks about going through a tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean or storms at sea in general. "if they have never experienced a full-blown storm at sea, that the ocean voyager becomes blase about it, or that the living fear of Christ does not enter into his soul and emerge down his spine to his balls. Because he doesn't and it does. Every time. At least in my case. Most of the ocean voyagers to whom I have talked about this agree with me, but there are some who tend to ply down their true feelings...I suppose some guys still have the remains of shore-side machismo in them. Not me; when I shit I shit, and I don't give a damn who knows it. If they think any the less of me for being honest about it, then let them take off and navigate in a rip-roaring cyclone, with certain death under the lee in the black, stormy, rain-lashed, uncertain depths. Let them peer, eyes aching with want of sleep, into the darkness in a heaving, crazy, thundering hull in God's vastness; let them strain their ears away from the roaring wind and try to pick out the sound of surf on the deadly reefs. Then they can look down their noses, if they like. But don't let them tell me they were not afraid..." This speaks to me today as much as it did when I was a kid. Yes, I do, to some extent, blame and praise Jones for teaching me a lesson at an impressionable age.
Juxtaposition:
Alem being Imperial Ethiopian Navy. Its first sailor, prior to joining the crew of the Barbara, was issued the Empire of Ethiopia's first professional seaman's passbook with his number being #00001. He probably had to have had some family influence to get him there. and considering the value of the siesta, whatever its name where you are at, when the heat climbs into the horrid latitudes, Jones' comment about having to ride Alem to keep him from giving up and to get the job done seems both fair and unfair. Child of elites who thinks that something(going sailing down the east coast of Africa on a yacht) is one thing and joins up only to discover it's something else entirely(fighting winds, storms, and the sea, and being amongst many different peoples who he looks down upon and having to rub shoulders with them). Look no further than his attitudes towards the Moslem peoples that they encounter in all the ports of East Africa. Juxtapose that with the fact that any Ethiopian Navy, and at that time, they didn't have an outlet to the sea, much less any ships, would be in and amongst Arabic peoples for its entire existence.
Jones reprsents the contrasts of his era. He is very quick to call other peoples savages, when he smeared Alem for his prejudices all down Africa's east coast, then, went to bat for him in South Africa.
"A pilgrimage to his pride..." He's lucky this voyage didn't kill him.
The Unexpected:
Need to find a book about the British Royal Navy's anti-slavery service off the shores of Mombasa which ran up until 1912. That sounds fascinating.
Missed Opportunity:
This points out something to me. I need to study African history in general; beyond the borders of Egypt, the northern Arabic states, the Boer War, South Africa, and Shaka Zulu, I'm A bit of a ditz.
Strikeout:
The whole catching a hammerhead just so you can cut some steaks out of them and waste the rest offends me. I get that this was written in a different era, but still the whole taking more than you need ideal. And then the sidebar that he did it 14 more times as he fought the Humboldt Current off South America leaves me pissy.
Jones is full of shit. No white man has ever been as offended by the word gringo as others are by that epithet used ad nauseam in racial relations in America. I won't dignify it by repeating it or alluding more precisely to it. You know what it is. And Jones felt free to use it, just dropped casually in. I know it was a different era and, by my own skein, I try to let the past be the past and not judge the writings of bygone eras by today's morality, but it's hard. My remembrance of this book may be clouded by the distances between the me who first read this and the person I am today.
Get Off My Lawn:
As much as i like Jones, he's a colonialist fool ignoring and discounting the genocide visited upon all the tribes of the Americas by the coming of the Europeans.
Dreamcasting:
Keanu as Tristan would be awesome, but we’d probably get Tom Cruise. Cruise could probably channel Tristan, but he’s have to make him a Tome Cruise character while Keanu would let the character be who he was as best as he could.
Movies and Television:
The Barbara getting shot up off of Brothers Island and escaping the Egyptian forces on the islands would make an awesome scene in a movie.
Soundtrack:
Watching some TV, and it hit me, I'm hearing Jeremy Wade of River Monsters as the voice of Tristan Jones. If they ever do an audio book of Tristan’s work, Wade should get the job, hands down.
_________________________________________
Pacing:
The pace is fast.
Last Page Sound:
Don't know if I would read other of Tristan's writing. Based on some of the things that stuck in my craw this time around, probably not. My attachment to this book goes back to my childhood. This book is an old friend and a tale well told, part travelogue, part sailor's yarn, part myth, part fable, part history of a world that doesn't exist anymore.
Glad that he gave us the denouement of what happened with Conrad and Huanapaco. And while Sea Dart doesn't get her hero's return to England, she does eventually end up in the hands of someone who appreciates her history. Funny that he gives us Conrad and Huanapaco's happy ending, but him, he's gone back to work to earn enough for his next adventure and poor Sea Dart sits in customs impound in lieu of import taxes. Not a great spot to end, but could've been a lot worse. And ultimately as mentioned elsewhere, Sea Dart finds a home where she is appreciated. Though I can’t find any mention of what happened to Barbara.
Questions I’m Left With:
Jones may have been the one who prompted my love of travelogue stories. I love this shit.
Sea Dart is owned by the Ikkatsu Project in Washington, an organization dealing with plastic waste in the oceans. The old boat lives on as part of that organization and continues to enjoy some celebrity as the boat that climbed to Lake Titicaca and back down. …though at this point, she’s probably a Ship of Theseus.
Conclusions I’ve Drawn:
"I have very often been in a situation in which I did not think I would survive, but, by God, I would go on trying--I was going to play the bloody game right down to the bottom line, because it's fun. Also it's very interesting. Also, for the time being, it's all we have." :/ I never realized how much of an influence friggin' Tristan Jones was on my teenage years and young adulthood. This paragraph imprinted on me when I first read this book. I remembered the book, but didn't remember that this paragraph came from it. Play on.
Author Assessment:
This book is extremely well written, but infuriating in places. I’m probably done with Jones.
Reread Pile:
I’ve read this book three times over my life. And I’ve enjoyed it. But I enjoy it less as I look at it with mature eyes. In my fifth decade, I can say that this is probably the last time I read it.
=======================================
Author: Tristan Jones
Publisher: Early Bird Books / Open Road Integrated Media
Publishing Date: 1977
Pgs: 432
Disposition: Hoopla eBook via Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
=======================================
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
Follow the supreme adventurer, Tristan Jones, as he takes a solitary and intrepid six-year voyage on his small craft, The Sea Dart. Covering a distance twice the circumference of the globe, from the lowest body of water in the world—the Dead Sea—to the highest—Lake Titicaca in the Andes—Jones finds himself "a thousand times beyond the limit of endurance." With tenacity stronger than any obstacle, Jones refuses to give up his adventure, even after falling prey to several disasters that could have killed him. Struggling against the mighty current of the Amazon, hauling his boat over the Andes Mountains and capsizing off the Cape of Good Hope do not discourage him.
This gripping story is a testament to his indomitable spirit and thirst for danger.
_________________________________________
Genre:
Travelogue
Adventure
Non-Fiction
True Story
Sailing
World Record
Biography
Nautical Fiction
Why this book:
I love this book. I’ve read it three times before. The first time I read it, I immediately read it again. And I read it a third time about 25 years ago. Yes, some of it is no doubt a cock-and-bull fable, but it is a good read.
_________________________________________
The Page 100 Test:
√◄ - good to go.
∞◄ - read on.
Favorite Character:
Conrad is a great character.
Tristan’s running back to stand the dock until Sea Dart was out of sight being shipped home from Montevideo to England is the most in-character thing Tristan does in this entire book.
Favorite Scene:
Considering the era and where they were the pucker factor was probably incredible when the heavily armed and belligerent-sounding Israeli Naval Patrol Craft spotlighted the Barbara as they coasted off Lebanon southward towards Haifa.
Favorite Concept:
6,000 miles of desert coast without seeing a tree from Israel down the Red Sea to Barawa,after they gained the Indian Ocean sounds like a rough stretch. No wonder they took turns staring at the clump of trees like deranged men. I mean…damn.
Language migration and absorption, after the Age of Sail, Swahili inherited a word "goddamni manowarri" which came to mean any foreign sailors in the area of Mozambique and Madagascar, because the British, French, Dutch, and Portuguese, invariably, referred to one another as some similar sounding term.
Best Line:
"In extremis, survival is the result of being angry with yourself for being a bloody fool!" Amen, Mr. Jones. Amen.
Hmm Moments:
Jones reminds me of my Uncle Robert.
I wonder if the face to face with Emperor Haile Selassie actually took place.
"Eventually, we reached Puerto Suarez, the Bolivian frontier town. The South American Handbook states that if is "fit for neither man nor beast." I will go further and say that it is the asshole of the Americas, north and south! It consists of a few unpainted, rotting wooden shacks slouched around railroad sidings, the lines of which are overgrown with jungle and alive with mosquitoes. On each side of the siding is a noisy fog-ridden swamp of fetid, stagnant water that stinks to h high heaven. During the twilight hours millions of mosquitoes rise off it, crowding the night air so thickly that there is hardly room between them to see the giant moths, which smash headlong into every light they can find. Over all this hovers a smothering, dank heat, making for an experience rather like putting your head into an oven full of rotting rats." - You get the impression that he really doesn't like that place. And that’s his commentary on it after being in two jails…at least two jails in South America and running/sailing for his life a few times since leaving Israel and rounding Africa.
Uhm Moments:
Well what the hell did Tristan expect sailing into South Africa in that era with a Black crew member? At least he did the right thing and stood up for his men, but geez. Bad planning. Bad form. Apartheid South Africa sucked. Course the decision to try the Atlantic route instead of the Pacific one made rounding South Africa necessary. Despite his bluster, he could've gotten them all arrested or killed. And following through on his threat to cast off and try the run to Brazil without resupply and some TLC on the boat would've probably left them all floating in the Atlantic somewhere with the boat on the bottom of the ocean.
Calling the Ball:
I read this for the first time when I was in middle school. The similarities with Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt are there. The writing is similar. I was much too naive a reader at the time to catch it. I read this first and discovered both the Clive Cussler novels and Ian Fleming at about the same time. I think that Cussler, Jones, and Fleming would probably have all hated each other. Fleming would’ve beaten the pants off the other two at cards. Probably drank them under the table too.
WTF Moments:
After the big deal the authorities in South Africa made about allowing Alem to be working and sleeping on the boat with white men, I wonder at the self-imposed bureaucratic hoops they had to jump through to get him on a plane back to Ethiopia when his term aboard Barbara was up.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
So he sailed on the Dead Sea, but not in the Barbara or the Sea Dart, just an unnamed skiff. The record is that of sailing a sea-going vessel on the lowest and highest bodies of water in the world isn't actually broken. That's disappointing. I didn't remember that from previous readings. I understand the limitations. But while the man sailed on both and all the waters in between, the boat didn’t. Seems to me that the record could have an addendum added to it, if someone had the balls to attempt it with a single boat.
Probably bullshit, but the idea that in his first afternoon in Colombia, as he's waiting for the harbor master to appear, someone stole onto the Sea Dart, with as small as she is, and lifted his shoes while he took a siesta on deck is hilarious. So, he was robbed...and robbed again...and robbed again...and then, arrested. +++ "When in danger or in doubt, hoist the sail, and fuck off out."
The Sigh:
I disagree with Jones on the conquistadors. He abhors their rape of the Incan Empire, but respects their efforts. I don't. Every story does the conquistadors no honor. Stories that do portray them as heroes, when you peel back a few layers they are shown as the villains of the piece, right alongside the clergy who went with them to gather souls and gold, more of the later, less of the former. Heroic Anglo Narrative, hello.
A Path I Can’t Follow:
Running the gauntlet from Israel down the Red Sea to Ethiopia was a near thing. Knowing now that a lot of this is a fish story doesn't detract from it at all. Glad wide-eyed, impressionable me didn't join the navy or merchant marine based on the tall tales aspect of it all.
Suspension of Disbelief:
Uhm, vampire bats attacking people in the Amazon? Tristan writes like this is commonplace, but PBS suggests that this is rare. I’m taking PBS’s side in the debate and that the bats are getting a bad rap.
The Nazi, former Nazi, yacht club on Lake Titicaca is probably a fish tale, well told, but probably horse hockey.
Not sure that I believe that Sea Dart was there. With as much detail as he includes, I believe that Tristan made the trip, but everything after his leaving Barbara may be a fable. It's a good fable.
Right there, he hadn't planned on crossing the continent, but he had the St. Nicholas gifts for Christmas Day in Brazil? This feeds the idea that parts of this aren’t whole cloth.
Turd in the Punchbowl:
Pizarro is as much or more of a SOB as Cortez ever was. What he did to Atahualpa did indeed seal the fate of South America and all her peoples, but her fate was sealed when the Pope gave his blessing to Spanish and Portuguese adventurism in the Americas. As surely as when Columbus and Amerigo voyaged westward.
We get it, Jones. Some people around the world have different ideas about bathing, hygiene, sewer, and sanitation. But, dude, you're from the era of Austin Powers' teeth. Maybe pump the brakes a bit, you elitist, yacht prig. Hell, you stated that you've pulled some of your own teeth, plural, and made no mention of dentures. I realize I'm arguing with a dead man. I'm arguing with a world that was. Or rather one man's perception of that world. I just wish he could've gotten out of his own way and let an awesome story tell itself.
Wisdom:
Jones talks about going through a tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean or storms at sea in general. "if they have never experienced a full-blown storm at sea, that the ocean voyager becomes blase about it, or that the living fear of Christ does not enter into his soul and emerge down his spine to his balls. Because he doesn't and it does. Every time. At least in my case. Most of the ocean voyagers to whom I have talked about this agree with me, but there are some who tend to ply down their true feelings...I suppose some guys still have the remains of shore-side machismo in them. Not me; when I shit I shit, and I don't give a damn who knows it. If they think any the less of me for being honest about it, then let them take off and navigate in a rip-roaring cyclone, with certain death under the lee in the black, stormy, rain-lashed, uncertain depths. Let them peer, eyes aching with want of sleep, into the darkness in a heaving, crazy, thundering hull in God's vastness; let them strain their ears away from the roaring wind and try to pick out the sound of surf on the deadly reefs. Then they can look down their noses, if they like. But don't let them tell me they were not afraid..." This speaks to me today as much as it did when I was a kid. Yes, I do, to some extent, blame and praise Jones for teaching me a lesson at an impressionable age.
Juxtaposition:
Alem being Imperial Ethiopian Navy. Its first sailor, prior to joining the crew of the Barbara, was issued the Empire of Ethiopia's first professional seaman's passbook with his number being #00001. He probably had to have had some family influence to get him there. and considering the value of the siesta, whatever its name where you are at, when the heat climbs into the horrid latitudes, Jones' comment about having to ride Alem to keep him from giving up and to get the job done seems both fair and unfair. Child of elites who thinks that something(going sailing down the east coast of Africa on a yacht) is one thing and joins up only to discover it's something else entirely(fighting winds, storms, and the sea, and being amongst many different peoples who he looks down upon and having to rub shoulders with them). Look no further than his attitudes towards the Moslem peoples that they encounter in all the ports of East Africa. Juxtapose that with the fact that any Ethiopian Navy, and at that time, they didn't have an outlet to the sea, much less any ships, would be in and amongst Arabic peoples for its entire existence.
Jones reprsents the contrasts of his era. He is very quick to call other peoples savages, when he smeared Alem for his prejudices all down Africa's east coast, then, went to bat for him in South Africa.
"A pilgrimage to his pride..." He's lucky this voyage didn't kill him.
The Unexpected:
Need to find a book about the British Royal Navy's anti-slavery service off the shores of Mombasa which ran up until 1912. That sounds fascinating.
Missed Opportunity:
This points out something to me. I need to study African history in general; beyond the borders of Egypt, the northern Arabic states, the Boer War, South Africa, and Shaka Zulu, I'm A bit of a ditz.
Strikeout:
The whole catching a hammerhead just so you can cut some steaks out of them and waste the rest offends me. I get that this was written in a different era, but still the whole taking more than you need ideal. And then the sidebar that he did it 14 more times as he fought the Humboldt Current off South America leaves me pissy.
Jones is full of shit. No white man has ever been as offended by the word gringo as others are by that epithet used ad nauseam in racial relations in America. I won't dignify it by repeating it or alluding more precisely to it. You know what it is. And Jones felt free to use it, just dropped casually in. I know it was a different era and, by my own skein, I try to let the past be the past and not judge the writings of bygone eras by today's morality, but it's hard. My remembrance of this book may be clouded by the distances between the me who first read this and the person I am today.
Get Off My Lawn:
As much as i like Jones, he's a colonialist fool ignoring and discounting the genocide visited upon all the tribes of the Americas by the coming of the Europeans.
Dreamcasting:
Keanu as Tristan would be awesome, but we’d probably get Tom Cruise. Cruise could probably channel Tristan, but he’s have to make him a Tome Cruise character while Keanu would let the character be who he was as best as he could.
Movies and Television:
The Barbara getting shot up off of Brothers Island and escaping the Egyptian forces on the islands would make an awesome scene in a movie.
Soundtrack:
Watching some TV, and it hit me, I'm hearing Jeremy Wade of River Monsters as the voice of Tristan Jones. If they ever do an audio book of Tristan’s work, Wade should get the job, hands down.
_________________________________________
Pacing:
The pace is fast.
Last Page Sound:
Don't know if I would read other of Tristan's writing. Based on some of the things that stuck in my craw this time around, probably not. My attachment to this book goes back to my childhood. This book is an old friend and a tale well told, part travelogue, part sailor's yarn, part myth, part fable, part history of a world that doesn't exist anymore.
Glad that he gave us the denouement of what happened with Conrad and Huanapaco. And while Sea Dart doesn't get her hero's return to England, she does eventually end up in the hands of someone who appreciates her history. Funny that he gives us Conrad and Huanapaco's happy ending, but him, he's gone back to work to earn enough for his next adventure and poor Sea Dart sits in customs impound in lieu of import taxes. Not a great spot to end, but could've been a lot worse. And ultimately as mentioned elsewhere, Sea Dart finds a home where she is appreciated. Though I can’t find any mention of what happened to Barbara.
Questions I’m Left With:
Jones may have been the one who prompted my love of travelogue stories. I love this shit.
Sea Dart is owned by the Ikkatsu Project in Washington, an organization dealing with plastic waste in the oceans. The old boat lives on as part of that organization and continues to enjoy some celebrity as the boat that climbed to Lake Titicaca and back down. …though at this point, she’s probably a Ship of Theseus.
Conclusions I’ve Drawn:
"I have very often been in a situation in which I did not think I would survive, but, by God, I would go on trying--I was going to play the bloody game right down to the bottom line, because it's fun. Also it's very interesting. Also, for the time being, it's all we have." :/ I never realized how much of an influence friggin' Tristan Jones was on my teenage years and young adulthood. This paragraph imprinted on me when I first read this book. I remembered the book, but didn't remember that this paragraph came from it. Play on.
Author Assessment:
This book is extremely well written, but infuriating in places. I’m probably done with Jones.
Reread Pile:
I’ve read this book three times over my life. And I’ve enjoyed it. But I enjoy it less as I look at it with mature eyes. In my fifth decade, I can say that this is probably the last time I read it.
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July 16, 2008
Tristan Jones was a bald faced liar and an alcoholic crank; his stories are required reading for armchair sailors, such as myself. There was undoubtedly a lot of steak in his stories, but he sold lots and lots of sizzle.
This is the story of how he sailed one boat on the Dead Sea--a boat he didn't own--then bought a tiny, twin keeled boat in the Caribbean and sailed it south, eventually taking it by train and truck to Lake Titicaca and sailing it among the reed boats, houses and islands there before hauling it to the headwaters of the Amazon and sailing back to Caribbean. You would think that with a story like that, there'd be no need to embellish, but he does, wonderfully, sometimes contradicting his own stories in the same sentence he tells them. But he has photos to back up a lot of his tales.
He wrote many, many books; they are all entertaining.
This is the story of how he sailed one boat on the Dead Sea--a boat he didn't own--then bought a tiny, twin keeled boat in the Caribbean and sailed it south, eventually taking it by train and truck to Lake Titicaca and sailing it among the reed boats, houses and islands there before hauling it to the headwaters of the Amazon and sailing back to Caribbean. You would think that with a story like that, there'd be no need to embellish, but he does, wonderfully, sometimes contradicting his own stories in the same sentence he tells them. But he has photos to back up a lot of his tales.
He wrote many, many books; they are all entertaining.
December 29, 2010
Captain Jones named his book accurately- his experiences sailing the world are truly incredible! But I didn't always enjoy his writing style. At times it was as if he was just reciting data from his sailor's logs- "covered 200 nautical miles from this date to this date, reached such and such port on such a such date, weather was bad in this ocean or that..." it was easy at those times to see that he had forgotten a lot of the details of the experience, since he was writing the book several years after he finished the voyage. But once he got to Lake Titicaca and Bolivia there was much more color, spirit, and humour in his writing. You could tell it was the most memorable place of his entire journey, and one that will always be in his heart!
All in all this was a really interesting read, and recommended for people who like travel and adventure!
All in all this was a really interesting read, and recommended for people who like travel and adventure!
January 10, 2011
I'm a professional sailor and part-time adventurer, and I love the Tristan Jones books. A lot of people talk about all the stuff Tristan must have added to his story, but fact or fiction, they are good stories. Besides, any sailor that's done long passages knows that they 99% boredom and 1% panic. A few yarns woven in to make the 99% sound better is fine with me, and at times I may be guilty of it myself.
The man could sail, and he loved boats. Anytime someone is so passionate about their lifestyle I am impressed and become interested in what they have to say. This story did drag on at times, but in all actuality that's probably how it felt in real life for Tristan, so in that sense the book was only closely following the actual emotion of the moment.
I don't think I'd recommend this for someone who doesn't know or care at least a little about boats. ICE! is a better adventure story that non-sailors can follow. Still, for anyone who loves difficult travel and an indomitable spirit, this is a good book.
The man could sail, and he loved boats. Anytime someone is so passionate about their lifestyle I am impressed and become interested in what they have to say. This story did drag on at times, but in all actuality that's probably how it felt in real life for Tristan, so in that sense the book was only closely following the actual emotion of the moment.
I don't think I'd recommend this for someone who doesn't know or care at least a little about boats. ICE! is a better adventure story that non-sailors can follow. Still, for anyone who loves difficult travel and an indomitable spirit, this is a good book.
April 29, 2015
One of my 1st real life Sailing Adventure books. Many years later I bought my own boat. & am now on year 10!
January 29, 2020
One of the most entertaining sailing books I have ever read, though it took to about 30% in before I was hooked. Then I read slowly, savoring every bit, delaying, not wanting it to end. In desperation, I looked up more books written by Tristan Jones. Reassured there were plenty, I enjoyed this book all the more.
Part truth and part tale, who cares? Enough sailing to more than satisfy the sailor. I wanted to keep google open to follow his adventures, but decided I will go back and read it with google maps open.
Colorful language, colorful prose, colorful character.
He went through the Panama Canal without engine, much to the dismay of the pilot brought on board. He had 4 large men he had gathered the day before assisting him:
"The four giant hippies lined up across the tiny deck amidships acted as a sail. When we got halfway into the locks I shouted, “Down,” and they dropped prone on the deck, and there we were, automatically reefed down."
And this description I will never forget:
"From Majunga we cruised slowly down what is surely the loveliest cruising ground in the world (or so I thought until Lake Titicaca). The air is so clear that it seems you can touch the Massif Centrale, a range of mountains two hundred miles away. In the mornings the limpid sky and the sea appear to be joined together, so that it is impossible to see the horizon, and all the time you are floating in the clearest water I have ever seen. The bottom at sixty feet is as plainly visible as the floor under your feet. It was as if the boat was afloat in a crystal bowl. The silence was so delicate, a shimmering, trembling silence, that it seemed that the slightest noise would shatter the world around you into a million pieces."
Just makes you want to get in the nearest sailboat and head off:
"Barbara [the boat's name] would ghost along in the lightest of zephyrs, and we would creep around the deck, whispering so as not to shatter the magic. There were hundreds of islands off this coast, most of them uninhabited, full of birds and luxurious vegetables. Sandy, untrodden beaches, coral reefs aswarm with fish, safe anchorages, and the best sailing imaginable..."
Tristan Jones was a man who appreciated the diversity of life in this world, both human and otherwise. His standing up for the downtrodden was both a surprise (in the late 60s) as well as welcome.
Get this book and hunker down for an incredible adventure.
Part truth and part tale, who cares? Enough sailing to more than satisfy the sailor. I wanted to keep google open to follow his adventures, but decided I will go back and read it with google maps open.
Colorful language, colorful prose, colorful character.
He went through the Panama Canal without engine, much to the dismay of the pilot brought on board. He had 4 large men he had gathered the day before assisting him:
"The four giant hippies lined up across the tiny deck amidships acted as a sail. When we got halfway into the locks I shouted, “Down,” and they dropped prone on the deck, and there we were, automatically reefed down."
And this description I will never forget:
"From Majunga we cruised slowly down what is surely the loveliest cruising ground in the world (or so I thought until Lake Titicaca). The air is so clear that it seems you can touch the Massif Centrale, a range of mountains two hundred miles away. In the mornings the limpid sky and the sea appear to be joined together, so that it is impossible to see the horizon, and all the time you are floating in the clearest water I have ever seen. The bottom at sixty feet is as plainly visible as the floor under your feet. It was as if the boat was afloat in a crystal bowl. The silence was so delicate, a shimmering, trembling silence, that it seemed that the slightest noise would shatter the world around you into a million pieces."
Just makes you want to get in the nearest sailboat and head off:
"Barbara [the boat's name] would ghost along in the lightest of zephyrs, and we would creep around the deck, whispering so as not to shatter the magic. There were hundreds of islands off this coast, most of them uninhabited, full of birds and luxurious vegetables. Sandy, untrodden beaches, coral reefs aswarm with fish, safe anchorages, and the best sailing imaginable..."
Tristan Jones was a man who appreciated the diversity of life in this world, both human and otherwise. His standing up for the downtrodden was both a surprise (in the late 60s) as well as welcome.
Get this book and hunker down for an incredible adventure.
March 17, 2021
It is an incredible voyage, and an incredible story to tell, and Tristan Jones does his best to be picturesque in his writing, but he is no Thor Heyerdahl or Tim Severin, and I didn't find myself either warming to him as a personality or impressed by his prose, although the only thing I could put my finger on was a tendency to use far too many exclamation marks when he is trying to be exciting. Other men have battled bureaucracy and the waves (and, in Jones's case, the geopolitics of the late 1970s), but somehow this book manages to come across as more Fitzcarraldo than "The African Queen" - the story is perversely eccentric rather than heroic, and the narration has an angry, peevish note rather than being the 'rip roaring adventure' promised on the cover.
The events might have made a better book, I think, if ghostwritten by someone else...
The events might have made a better book, I think, if ghostwritten by someone else...
July 18, 2025
This is a cracking book. Tristan talks to you as if he’s sat next to you in the far off corner of a dusty pub. The wind is howling outside, storming, and after five hours of story, he gets up and heads off to bed. Leaving you like “… yeah right!”. But the whole time before that, spellbound. He’s an unabashed and honest communicator and I felt like the story was beautiful. His sidekicks along the way make the story just that bit more exciting, as Tristan never makes them feel secondary to his narrative. They’re front and center too. My grandfather gave me this book, and I loved every page.
August 17, 2023
Tristan Jones is truly a legend among nautical storytellers. His books have always held a special place up on my bookshelf, including the small one aboard my old floating home, S.V. La Paloma. Packed with real life adventure (and just a small bit of blarney), Jones' accounts of his globe spanning solo voyages are not only inspirational, but keep the reader on the edge of their seats at all times, wondering just how he might survive the next dramatic turn of events. Highly recommended.
May 2, 2022
An incredible story with many twists and turns. It's a shock to hear what that part of the world was like in the 1980s. It's hard to even comprehend. I'll be looking up more of Tristan's adventures.
October 2, 2023
A Slog of an Adventure
I can't help but wonder how much of this incredible tale occured as described. The hardships endured go far beyond the type of adventure I seek. The story is entertaining and the accomplishments are impressive.
I can't help but wonder how much of this incredible tale occured as described. The hardships endured go far beyond the type of adventure I seek. The story is entertaining and the accomplishments are impressive.
May 24, 2024
I had been reading this book on-and-off since February 2021. At long last, I am finally free. This book did not defeat me. I am a martyr and my suffering under the weight of this boring, aggrandizing, long-winded, pompous ass book should make me a saint.
February 2, 2025
A series of unbelievable events written in a coherent manner. Although, after reading some of Tristan Jones' other works it has become clear that this writing is a personified account of his real world experiences. But that shouldn't keep you from reading about this fantastic journey.
February 16, 2025
A truly incredible story, even though it's so commendable, personally I have many doubts and I think the author embellished many passages. There is also the chauvinism and english stiff upper lip in the narrative, that was acceptable 50 years ago but it's hardly palatable right now.
November 24, 2017
Wow, just wow!
If you ever dreamed of adventure, read this book to learn what adventure is. Read it, read it, read it!
If you ever dreamed of adventure, read this book to learn what adventure is. Read it, read it, read it!
November 30, 2017
I loved this lark, even if it's somewhat invented, it's true for me. A delight to read.
August 12, 2018
Read this book... it will make you want to smuggle a boat through the Andes.
April 29, 2019
A fantastic yarn, even if it has lately come out that Mr. Jones may have embellished more than a few bits.
January 6, 2022
While the author's escapades are mildly absorbing, I have a quarrel with his style. He relates all his experiences one after another, as a matter of course. The book only picks up (a little) when the author reaches the Amazon. It would have been better too if the references to the author's debauched escapades with the locals were left out.
June 15, 2023
Hade säkert varit mer roande om jag inte läst den över en månad… men helt ok 👍🏼
October 22, 2023
Otrolig resa med väldigt många galna händelser.
April 17, 2024
Second best sea yarn I have read. Bested only by Two Years Before The Mast.
January 7, 2025
Ett jävla äventyr, inspirerande om att klara sig ensam till sjöss och drömma stort
August 29, 2021
This had all of the sailing stories and stories of the sea I expected, but Jones encountered such crazy perils for such a trivial goal, I just ended up getting ticked off with him.
August 3, 2021
One of the most amazing books I've ever read. Sailing the lowest body of water to the highest in one epic trip. His adventures are incredible and his story telling even better. Thanks to Bob Lorentson (www.boblorentson.com) for recommending this one.
February 14, 2014
What an adventure to follow the author in his travels around the world, sailing, in the most unlikely places like Lake Titicaca, the Amazon River, and dangerous zones where there are hostile forces, and so on. He faces being shot at, red tape, bad weather, accidents, diseases, and suffers through it all with grit, his quest adventure,and humour. He goes through such ordeals that you wonder what drives the man to that extreme?
Best of all, is his personality that shows through in his writing and powerful words. I love the way he shows how he deals with adversity, difficult situations, and sticks up for what is right. His point of view of the different races, nations, and people he meets is all interesting.
The whole book is an adventure and I highly recommend it. It is a one of a kind book about sailing around the world and also captures a time and political situation of that time.
Best of all, is his personality that shows through in his writing and powerful words. I love the way he shows how he deals with adversity, difficult situations, and sticks up for what is right. His point of view of the different races, nations, and people he meets is all interesting.
The whole book is an adventure and I highly recommend it. It is a one of a kind book about sailing around the world and also captures a time and political situation of that time.
February 2, 2017
This is one I couldn't put down. Crusty and truly incredible, it reads like a sailor's story, as it is.
With the idea to sail the lowest navigatable body of water to the highest, (Dead Sea to Lake Titicaca) he picks up an inexperienced deckhand for the journey. The adventure of sailing would seem to be one of ships or boats on oceans, yet it isn't. Oh sure, they sail over oceans and certainly adventure finds them during these legs of this voyage. However, I didn't expect Amazon River stories and I didn't expect climbing to reach Lake Titicaca, much less getting through the Patagonia in a desperate drive to return to ocean waters once again. These were my favorite stories of the voyage.
This book remains etched in memory. It isn't literary in that sense, it's a sea story in the true sense of sea stories.
With the idea to sail the lowest navigatable body of water to the highest, (Dead Sea to Lake Titicaca) he picks up an inexperienced deckhand for the journey. The adventure of sailing would seem to be one of ships or boats on oceans, yet it isn't. Oh sure, they sail over oceans and certainly adventure finds them during these legs of this voyage. However, I didn't expect Amazon River stories and I didn't expect climbing to reach Lake Titicaca, much less getting through the Patagonia in a desperate drive to return to ocean waters once again. These were my favorite stories of the voyage.
This book remains etched in memory. It isn't literary in that sense, it's a sea story in the true sense of sea stories.
February 26, 2016
What an incredible read! Either Tristan Jones is an incredible liar, or this was truly an incredible voyage. I suspect that there is a little of both. What he set out to do - sail the lowest point on earth (the Dead Sea) and then sail to and on the highest point on earth (Lake Titicaca) a journey that took six years. The adventures he tells were remarkable in and of themselves, and he writes in a down-to-earth style you would expect of an old salt, but he also interviews well-researched history of the places he visits, and shares a great deal about the people and the geography. A fascinating read.
December 21, 2007
The chapter called "Green Hell" remains the most fantastic tale of adventure I have ever read.
Tristan decides to 'sail' his boat from the highest possbile point (Lake Titicaca in the Andes) to the lowest (the Dead Sea). This involves putting his little sailboat on the back of trucks, trains, and dragging it by hand for months across a desert to reach the headwaters of the amazon. Then trying to figure out which way is downstream and pushing his boat towards the sea, while being attacked by creatures of the jungle. What a nut.
Tristan decides to 'sail' his boat from the highest possbile point (Lake Titicaca in the Andes) to the lowest (the Dead Sea). This involves putting his little sailboat on the back of trucks, trains, and dragging it by hand for months across a desert to reach the headwaters of the amazon. Then trying to figure out which way is downstream and pushing his boat towards the sea, while being attacked by creatures of the jungle. What a nut.
April 5, 2008
Tristan Jones can really spin a yarn as he recounts his efforts to be the first person to sail both the lowest and highest body of water, sailing between them to meet his goal. My favorite part was his attempt to sail up the Amazon against the tide. Battling snakes, bats, wood eating ants, heat and humidity, this exercise in futility finally had to come to and end. However, Mr. Jones persevered and continued on his quest. His descriptions of the landscapes and of the people he encounters along the way make this a very enjoyable read.
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