Outward Leg

After seven years ashore and having had his left leg amputated, Tristan Jones decided to return to the sea, hoping to inspire other handicapped people. In October 1983, Jones and his only crew member, Wally Rediske, set out from San Diego in a 36-foot trimaran, intending to circumnavigate the world from west to east by sail. This is story of Tristan’s preparation for this major seagoing event and the chronicle of half of it. (continued in Improbable Voyage ). Tristan sailed down the west coast of Central America through the Panama Canal to Colombia, where he had to fight for survival among hostile natives, drug dealers and uncoooperative port officers. He went on to Venezuela, Aruba and the Dominican Republic during its 1984 revolution. Finally he reached New York and crossed the Atlantic to return to St Katherine’s Dock in London where he began his seagoing life, thirty years before.