All at Sea

Twenty Years at the Helm of Tall Ships

The true story of how a family brought a wooden cargo ship back into the age of sail. Cecilia bought the first ship, a Thames barge, for family vacations—there were six children. Dominick bought the successor, a Baltic Trader, and then found this would be his career. Twenty years elapsed between the first days of the barge and the last day of the Baltic. From knowing virtually nothing about sailing ships, the author traces getting to grips with the problems of making sails on board, skipping between sandbanks, dragging anchor, losing a mast, crossing the Atlantic, fixing self-steering, avoiding hurricanes, hauling out for repairs, and his major preoccupation: failing to sink. For 13 years, the author had no other home, and for half that period never spent a night ashore.