Solitary journey: the third voyage of the "Nova Espero by Violet, Charles - 1954-01-01

D. Van Nostrand Comp, 1954-01-01. Hardcover. Acceptable/Acceptable. D. Van Nostrand Company [Published Date: 1954]. Hardcover, 200 pp. Stated First Edition. With an Introduction by Captain (E.) John H. Illingworth, 29 black and white plates, 5 maps and end-page track charts. Nice Jacket art by Roy Glanville (British, 1911-1965). Acceptable in Acceptable dust jacket. Blue cloth covered boards with gold lettering on spine. Bumping and scuffing to edges of covers and light to moderate overall scuffing, aging and soiling to covers as well. Binding tight. Moderate age spotting to endpapers paper, half and title page and first and last few pages. Otherwise pages are lightly aged but unmarked with occasional light spotting. Dust jacket has several 1” or less chips and tears and creasing to edges. Moderate overall scuffing, aging and soiling to jacket as well, with the color scuffed off along edges. NOT price clipped Now in an archival-quality (removable) Brodart Cover. NOT Ex-Library. NO remainder marks. A solid reading copy with scarce jacket. [From front jacket flap] After crossing the Atlantic in 1951 with Stanley Smith in the.little yawl Nova Espero, Charles Violet failed to settle down. On the contrary he had the urge to start wandering again. He wanted to gratify a cherished ambition to visit the countries of the Mediterranean and in this book Solitary Journey he tells us how he did so without a companion and with very meagre resources.After crossing the English Channel the author proceeded, with the help of an outboard engine, through the inland waterways of France to Marseilles. He then cruised in the Mediterranean, visiting a deserted island, where he went underwater hunting for Roman vases from an ancient wreck. He cruised on to Italy, Stromboli, the Strait of Messina, Sicily, Malta, Pantelleria and North Africa, where he suffered from food poisoning acquired at an Arab restaurant. On the passage to Sardinia he was struck by blindness, a terrible experience when alone in a small boat. He recovered, and continued cruising along the wild and rocky coasts of Sardinia and Corsica. Nova Espero wintered on the French Riviera before starting on the long return passage to England, via the Canal du Midi, the Bay of Biscay, the Vilaine River and the English Channel. This is a book which it is a pleasure to read. It is a story of travel by an observant author, with vivid descriptions of the out-of-the-way places visited, the acquaintances he made and the interesting incidents of his remarkable single-handed voyage. For the yachtsman it will be an inspiration, showing how .much of the world can be seen by means of a voyage m a really tiny yacht. Appendices give additional practical information.