MARGIN OF ERROR

KNOCKED DOWN, BECALMED, GROUNDED, AND LOST, GRAHAM COX'S ATTEMPT TO SAIL FROM AUSTRALIA TO NEW ZEALAND IN A 24-FOOTER ENDS IN NEAR DISASTER

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From childhood, Graham Cox had dreamed of the ocean. Growing up in Durban, he'd spent his time hanging out near what was then called the International Jetty, where far-ranging yachts of all nations berthed to break their epic passages. Sometimes he'd pluck up courage and 'make his number', to be well received by the generous tribes of the sea. His two volumes, Last Days of the Slocum Era, describe this dreaming time. The heroes he met come rollicking off the pages as though we were all in the pub together.

About halfway through Volume 1, Graham leaves home with his kitbag and emigrates to Australia. It isn't long before he has acquired a small yacht to live on. Poeme is a 24ft, engineless double-ended ketch built in the old-fashioned way of larch on oak. In 1974, the call of the sea becomes undeniable. Together with Colleen, a girl he hardly knows, he sets sail for New Zealand.

Things do not go well. We join them after a major hammering from a full gale, somewhere off Australia's east coast, position unknown, with the wind blowing onshore.

The one thing I wanted to do now was return to the safety of Australia. Go home. My longing for the sea had mysteriously vanished. The south-easterly gale was blowing us that way. It was only a matter of time before we arrived. I began staring at the western horizon, but my gaze was always met by an endless vista of large, foam-backed waves. How far offshore were we? 100 miles was just a stab in the dark. I'd literally lost the plot.