This book is about Maurice and Marilyn Bailey   who in the 1970s sold their house in England and bought the sailing boat Auralyn. Their goal was to sail across the world to New Zealand. On their way to the Galapagos Islands their yacht was damaged by a whale and sunk. The couple survived for 118 days in a dinghy and a life raft before being rescued by another ship. The first two-thirds of the book details how they organised their days to stay sane and find food and water. A big part of their survival was the fight against boredom on the raft. Their own account of this was published in the book 117 Days Adrift   .

As a sailor who has done a sea survival course in the past, this was really interesting to read about. It’s incredible to think how they managed to sustain themselves on raw turtle and shark meat, fish, and rainwater. It also highlighted how important it is to have a way to signal your location to other boats closeby since they were missed by three passing boats who didn’t see them. The last third of the book is about their life after the rescue. Interestingly, they immediately tried to buy another boat to sail to Patagonia which they accomplished. The book ends on quite a sad note when Elmhirst describes Maurice’s loneliness after the passing of his wife in 2002.