The Years Thunder By

Nick Jaffe

Independent publication

£11.30

A book which inspires one to ponder the difference between cruising and voyaging. Nick Jaffe had little money and only minimal knowledge of sailing when he began to dream of small boats and the vast sea. He craved space and self-discovery: risk, peace, solitude, connection with the universe. Jaffe had left his native Australia to work in Europe. Now he conceived the idea of sailing home via the Atlantic and Pacific with an overland crossing of the USA. He acquired Constellation, a Contessa 26 and achieved his vision through his own tenacity and the extraordinary kindness of strangers. It’s an intensely solipsistic venture but his honesty enables the reader to buy into the dream. We’re rewarded with some profound insights and passages of great beauty.