The Log of the Molly B
It's Vancouver, Canada in the early 1980s. Greenpeace has just been founded, Bob Geldof has just had his first hit, Ireland is a waste land. Dubliner Pete Hogan finally gets it together to build his own boat, a Tahiti Ketch, an iconic American sailboat design. His dream is to sail away into the sunset and be like his heroes, the famous singlehanded sailors Knox Johnston and Taberly. It does not quite work out like that, but he does build his boat, the Molly B, and sails it engineless and on a shoestring down the coast of California, through the Panama Canal, and across the Atlantic to Ireland, with numerous adventures along the way. Ten years later he sails it around the world. He meets a girl. The boat sinks in the Mediterranean in a storm. Pete is lucky to survive. In short, this is the story of one boat, the 30 foot long Molly B, from building to shipwreck, and the man who lived to tell the tale. It is lavishly illustrated by the author, a professional artist.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements viiGlossary of Sailing Terms and Equipment viii1. ‘Go West Young Man’ 12. ‘A Poor Wayfaring Stranger’ 153. ‘Into the Mystic’ 274. ‘No Cash, No Splash’ 415. ‘Day after Day, Day after Day’ 546. ‘Or Like Stout Cortez . . .’ 677. ‘Hit the Road Jack’ 868. ‘Roll’d to Starboard, Roll’d to Larboard’ 949. ‘Take a Walk on the Wild Side’ 10410. ‘Nkosi, Sikelel’ iAfrika’ 11711. ‘Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda’ 12512. ‘Gracias a la Vida . . .’ 13213. ‘Because It’s There’ 14014. ‘Home is the Sailor’ 15415. ‘On a Slow Boat to China’ 16316. ‘I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive’ 17417. ‘A Thousand Thousand Slimy Things’ 185Afterword 192