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Gypsy Life
Clare Allcard and her husband, Edward, have dared to live a life that armchair adventurers can only dream about. Here Clare tells the story of their adventures aboard the Regina Johanne, a rotting, worm-riddled, 69-foot Baltic Trader they discovered beached in Antigua.Clare and Edward (a naval architect), their daughter Katy, and an ever-shifting crew spent twelve years on the Regina Johanne, working to replace rotten timbers, exterminating the worms that were devouring her hull, constructing a peculiar one-and-a-half poster bed in preparation for a cruise with Clare's parents, and patching the frayed sails by hand.While repairing the boat, they sailed from Antigua to Nevis, England, France, Denmark, and other exotic ports. Clare's insightful writing both addresses her family's personal experiences on the Regina Johanne and includes useful information about the ports they visited, critical advice on the predominant sailing conditions in each area, and characteristics of the various foreign cultures they encountered. Sailors and nonsailors alike will be inspired by Clare's fascinating discussion of the family's nomadic lifestyle aboard the Regina Johanne.
- GenresTravel
Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 7, 2018
I am reading this book for the second time after a five year hiatus. I absolutely love it. Not only is it crammed full of facts about renovating a boat and sailing around the world, it is a funny heartfelt picture of a family's gypsy life.
September 18, 2017
meh, uninspiring, too matter of fact
March 25, 2019
Great book. Well written, fun, interesting and you’ll learn something. Excellent detail of life aboard.
October 28, 2020
The Allcards, interesting people
May 3, 2026
What a good read! It has everything the lazy seafaring reader (me) would want in such a book. Very well written with great attention to detail.
September 20, 2012
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A friend happened upon a first edition and sent it my way, since they knew I was interesting in sailing. What's truly amazing about Clare Allcard's chronicle is the detail and freshness of the story. The book was published in the early 1990's, but the experiences Allcard shares actually occurred in the mid 1970's. It's astonishing that Allcard could remember so many of the details and emotions of what she and her family experienced during those earlier adventures. I assume that she was a disciplined diary-keeper.
One of the things I really enjoyed about this book is that it's a true sailing story told from a woman's point of view. When Clare's husband, Edward, discovered the beautiful old wooden Baltic Trader that was to become the family's home, Clare was a young woman with very little sailing experience and a small child to care for. The book recounts the wild adventure of refurbishing the boat and taking it half-way around the world--all from Clare's perspective.
There is a lot of dramatic tension in the story that kept me reading. The whole idea of taking on such a daunting boat project, and then actually trying to sail the boat across the Atlantic and even beyond, is pretty crazy. But you end up rooting for Clare and her family. You want the best for them. The encounters they have along the way are full of the color of the 1970's. That was a time before the advent of the GPS, when navigation was still a skill. And it was a time when free spirits would show up on the dock with a backpack and agree to come aboard as crew for months at a time. It was a simpler, and yet maybe harder, world to live in. Clare Allcard paints a dramatic portrait of it all. And we see her slowly grow as a sailor, until she's confident enough to relish sailing that huge wooden yacht through storms while the entire crew gets a good night's sleep below.
While I don't think this book is currently in print, there seem to be a lot of used copies out there. I highly recommend it. It's a great sailing story!
One of the things I really enjoyed about this book is that it's a true sailing story told from a woman's point of view. When Clare's husband, Edward, discovered the beautiful old wooden Baltic Trader that was to become the family's home, Clare was a young woman with very little sailing experience and a small child to care for. The book recounts the wild adventure of refurbishing the boat and taking it half-way around the world--all from Clare's perspective.
There is a lot of dramatic tension in the story that kept me reading. The whole idea of taking on such a daunting boat project, and then actually trying to sail the boat across the Atlantic and even beyond, is pretty crazy. But you end up rooting for Clare and her family. You want the best for them. The encounters they have along the way are full of the color of the 1970's. That was a time before the advent of the GPS, when navigation was still a skill. And it was a time when free spirits would show up on the dock with a backpack and agree to come aboard as crew for months at a time. It was a simpler, and yet maybe harder, world to live in. Clare Allcard paints a dramatic portrait of it all. And we see her slowly grow as a sailor, until she's confident enough to relish sailing that huge wooden yacht through storms while the entire crew gets a good night's sleep below.
While I don't think this book is currently in print, there seem to be a lot of used copies out there. I highly recommend it. It's a great sailing story!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews