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Friday 26 July 2019

Monkeying Around at Sea

Monkeying Around at Sea is an amazing travelogue written by Angela Coe, which records her two-year voyage from Singapore all the way to Spain in a ferro cement boat (yes, they make boats out of cement) called Sandpiper.

Angela her husband Bob, Pixie (a monkey) and Bob-tail, Angela's cat, embarked on an amazing journey. They had no sailing experience at all, it must be acknowledged. Even though Bob was a master mariner.

Things were not fated to go particularly well from the very beginning. Pixie was lost overboard and the captain (her husband Bob) managed to require hospitalisation with a dislocated shoulder. However, Pixie was returned to the ship, a disaster that was averted, thankfully, as they had thought they'd lost her.

When the captain was fit enough to return they, eventually, set sail. And ran into a sand bank.

They aimed to sail all the way back to England, plans to sail round the Cape somehow became a rather dangerous quest to brave the Red Sea.

Life on the Sandpiper was never dull and often involved a little bit of peril. Although the fear of a potentially exploding pressure cooker proved to be groundless, ensuring the safety of the pets and human crew took up a good deal of time and tricky matters such as a leaking chemical toilet, how to dispose of waste whilst at sea and a variety of heath issues and the like really kept them on their toes.

The book is copiously illustrated with a number of gorgeous colour photographs from the journey and their ports of call, plus some line drawing maps, too.

The action described in the book took place between 1977 to 1980.

Did they ever make it to England? Purchase the book for £11.99 and find out!

The book is published by The Book Guild.

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