Dolphins at Sunset

In 1985 Michael and Elizabeth Thurston, with their two small children, left Australia in their fifty-foot aluminium ketch, Drina, to sail around the world. Michael was ship’s master with years of experience skippering small vessels around New Guinea and the Pacific islands. Elizabeth had never made an ocean passage in a sailing boat and had to learn about sailing as she went along. There were also the children to care for: one was three years old and the other a toddler of only fifteen months when they began their voyage. Dolphins at Sunset is Elizabeth Thurston’s account of their four-year family odyssey, which took them to some of the most idyllic anchorages in the world as well as through some violent seas. Throughout the voyage they were part of an international sailing fraternity where the qualities that count are courage, seamanship, humour and humanity. Those qualities are well represented in this fascinating narrative, which will delight blue-water sailors and armchair travellers alike.PB 232