Review by Steve (Retired Bookseller); This delightfully personal and very engaging account is a true adventure story, told in captivating detail and enriched with many photographs both colour and black and white.
With very limited boatbuilding skills, 18-year-old Tony Armit built Marco Polo, a 28ft yacht and then with a school friend Tig Loe sailed west-wise right around the world in 3 years, the first Kiwis to complete such a circumnavigation.
This all happened in the 1950s, they had very little money, none of the modern luxuries or electronic equipment we take for granted today, only basic navigation equipment and few charts, and while at sea no contact with the shore.
It did come as an exciting surprise to discover for me when he writes about meeting and enjoying spending time with a New Zealander Sandy Sanders who was farming in the mountains on Galapagoes Islands. The late Sandy is my daughter’s father-in-law.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it a superbly written great adventure.
Click here to visit rnz.co.nz Nine to Noon's interview with Tony Armit
In 1951, an 18-year-old Kiwi lad named Tony Armit decided to build a 28-foot wooden yacht. Three years later, he christened her Marco Polo, then with a former school rugby mate, Brian ‘Tig’ Loe, set sail from Auckland on an epic voyage... and whatever adventure may await.
In the process, Tony and Tig became the first New Zealanders to circumnavigate the globe. Tony always intended to write a book, and now – about 70 years later – he has, telling the story here for the first time in full – a vital addition to New Zealand’s proud sailing heritage. Through near disaster, good fortune, storm and calm, it's a yarn full of humour, drama, can-do Kiwism, romance and adventure, as Tig, Tony and Marco experience the world as it was in the 1950s.
First heading to Australia, then across the Indian Ocean to South Africa, round the Cape, across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, North America, the Panama Canal, the Galápagos, the Pacific Islands – and points between – encountering a host of colourful and unique characters along the way.
A must-read for lovers of sailing and true-life adventure, and a perfect book for the boat or bach.
NonFiction, Adventure, Memior
Tony Armit
Pages: 592
Dimensions: 148 x 210 mm