Dolphins Under My Bed [Paperback]

Sandra Clayton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2008

In declining health, overworked, and living in the cold, damp north, one winter evening David has one of those Eureka! moments that most people experience at some time in their lives. His is: Why don't we sell up and sail away to a better climate?

'Living on a boat is cheap compared to a house,' he tells wife Sandra, 'and the difference to our health would be enormous.'

One problem for Sandra is that it isn't that cheap, and with the retirement pension still light-years away, she has visions of ending her days a bag lady. Another problem is that she hates sailing.

But things have a habit of working out, and Dolphins Under My Bed charts their 2,000-mile voyage on a forty-foot sailing catamaran from England to the Channel Islands, down the Atlantic coasts of France, Spain, and Portugal to Gibraltar, and into the warm waters of the Mediterranean.

Conditions are sometimes maddening, occasionally dangerous, and often magical. Marine creatures enchant their days, while ships that pass in the night add a touch of romance-just so long as they do actually pass. It's the ones that make a sharp left turn across their bows that are the big worry.

But it is the people of the host countries-many of whom share little or no language with this linguistically challenged couple-whose kindness and courtesy light up these pages.

Dolphins Under My Bed is an entertaining, humorous, and thoughtful book by someone who finds herself in places and situations where she never expected to be. No previous experience of sailing is required to enjoy it.

Editorial Reviews

Review

I can't emphasize enough how well Clayton writes - her prose is so vivid that the reader is left with indelible images. My reaction on finishing the book was a fervent hope that it's only the first of a series. --Ray Aldridge, Living Aboard

I found Sandra's prose easy and fun to read. Anyone who has dreamed of travelling, or who is simply interested to see an intimate picture of culture in a variety of places is likely to enjoy Dolphins Under My Bed. --Jen Cardwell, ReaderViews

Dolphins would appeal to both experienced boaters and those who have never been on the water. It is free of complicated or technical terminology and is a most charming read. --Carol Waterkeyn, The Lifeboat

The author's descriptions of the beauty that surrounds them are breathtaking. It is a wonderful story, full of adventure. Don't wait until it is too late, pursue your dreams..don't end up saying, 'If I had only..' --Carey Anderson, The Tome Traveller

A 'sticky book'. I couldn't put it down. --Susan M, Cruising Magazine

"A refreshing tale of a well planned and executed voyage...Soothing stuff."—Practical Boat Owner

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Author

My Voyager books emerged from fundamental changes in my life. Some I longed for, like escaping long, damp northern winters. Others were difficult, like disposing of all the extraneous things in my home. Some people indulge in comfort eating. I hoarded things. I'd known for years that they should go. I simply couldn't do it until I had to. But now, of course, the home I kept them in was going too. Except it wasn't really. The house was. 'Home' had simply changed like everything else. It had become a 40-foot catamaran called Voyager.
   Once we set off I began keeping a daily log because I found the challenges and the ever-changing environment of my new life so compelling. I wrote it for myself, because I didn't want all these experiences, places and people to become a half-remembered jumble. After a while my log began to serve a practical purpose. Family and friends wanted news but, inevitably with letters and postcards, after a while you find that you are writing the same thing twice to some of them but nothing at all to others. My log provided material for newsletters instead. It was only later that someone asked when the book was coming out.
   When I started on the book, I wanted it to be enjoyable for both the sailor and the non-sailor; that is to say, not patronizing to a yachtsman but at the same time not so full of yachting terms as to leave the non-sailor feeling excluded. The sailors among my readers are likely to be far more competent than I was when Dolphins Under My Bed begins. And probably well after it finishes, come to that. But they may simply not have had the opportunity to venture as far as David and I ultimately do. I wanted to make my books accessible to the non-sailor because as well as the captivating aspects of sailing and the sea they are about people and out-of-the-way places and doing something adventurous while you still can. Not to mention recharging tired batteries and looking out at the world with new eyes.
   And, of course, everything is new. Marine creatures - dolphins, whales, porpoises and seabirds - become part of your life. Although I don't think I've adequately conveyed the thrill of having sea mammals arrive to investigate your boat or the sheer grace of gannets in flight. And your whole way of thinking changes because you become a sea creature, too. Your life is intimately connected to changes in the sky, the sea state and the force and direction of the wind, for in order to survive in this new and challenging environment you have to be observant. And not only at sea. Off the boat you are a foreigner in someone else's land. Quite a lot of very different lands, as it turns out.
   I wanted to give the reader the full experience: the sights and sounds, the pleasures, the discomforts, the sense of achievement, the beauty, the humour; but being honest, too, about when things go wrong, although even that can be an achievement since when it comes down to it there are only the two of you to get you out of trouble. Because, of course, your relationship has changed as well. After years of breakfasting together and then going your separate ways until dinner, Monday to Friday, at sea you are a team of two 24/7 and you depend on each other in ways you never did before.
   If my books were to have any practical purpose I should like to think that those readers who want to improve the quality of their own lives might find the encouragement to do so. You don't have to sell up your home and sail off into the sunset to do it. Everybody has their own sense of what they really want. It might be training for a different kind of job, living in a different part of the country or simply changing old habits, especially habits of thought. For a lot of people, even more limiting than 'I can't' is 'I shouldn't.'
  My other hope is that the books may add another voice to those already being raised about the damage being done to marine wildlife and to the sea itself. The sea has long been used as a receptacle for humanity's refuse. But having brought some species to near extinction, it is truly appalling to learn that whaling may begin again. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: Wheatmark (January 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587368161
• ISBN-13: 978-1587368165
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,890,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

As a free-lance writer my output ranged from general magazine articles to educational puppet plays for children and an award-winning radio play for the BBC. Part of my day job was to make specialist information accessible to the general public. Inevitably, when I went sailing, I wrote to make those experiences which I found so compelling accessible to as wide an audience as possible. So one of my great pleasures now is hearing from readers who say how completely they have slipped into Voyager's world. One said she was reading Dolphins Under My Bed on her long winter 'bus rides to and from work but had ceased to notice them as in her mind she was sailing down summer coastlines. Also, she said, on the journeys home she was now always on the lookout for the planet Venus--a particular favourite with sailors--in the evening sky.
One of the things that a book does is take us into a world that we would not otherwise enter, and perhaps would not particularly wish to on a physical level. Through the mind's eye, however, a book takes us to magical places without the financial cost or the bodily discomforts of physically getting there. It also offers another person's perspective, the world through someone else's eyes. Perhaps one of the most complimentary things anyone has said to me was a half-embarrassed, "To be honest, this isn't the sort of book I would normally take off the shelf. But once I started it, I couldn't stop." Although an acquaintance said, 'Now I've read your books, I think I understand you.' I'm still mulling that one over.
Through sailing, which I had no taste for initially, I developed a love of the sea. In loving it, I became aware of its fragility. If my books were to achieve anything among readers, apart from an enjoyment of places and people and open spaces, I should want them to see the oceans of the world as the truly extraordinary environments they really are, instead of just a food source and a dumping ground for the world's garbage. There is no more captivating sight than a family of dolphins teaching their babies to swim with your boat, or a pod of 80-foot fin whales observing you minutely as they overtake you at four-times your speed. They do not endanger us. But, sadly, we are damaging them.

You can find out more about me and my books on www.sandraclayton.Web.officelive.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Running Away to Sea, November 28, 2008

By 

Celia Hayes "Sgt. Mom" (San Antonio, SA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dolphins Under My Bed (Paperback)

According to the author's website, this is the first of a trilogy of accounts, covering the adventures of a fifty-something couple who decided to chuck it all and run away to sea.

Many people dream of this sort of adventure, living on a small boat and heading out to the South Pacific, around the world... and in Sandra and David Clayton's case, lighting out for the comparatively warmer, sunnier and more welcoming Mediterranean. There are also all kinds of good reasons not to do something so drastic; they could have whiled away the years in a tiny cottage in Provence, or along the Costa Brava, looking at sunsets and enjoying the local wine. But that did not appeal to David, who loved sailing, the out-of-doors, braving the rude elements at sea and ashore. Sandra was much less keen on that, cheerfully admitting that she hated to be tossed around the tiny cabin, whenever a bigger, faster boat passing by kicked up a big wake ... and didn't much really care for sailing. But she and David agreed that they had to go and have their adventure whilst they still could - and by luck happened to settle on purchase of a sturdy, 40-foot catamaran, just large enough to live on, but small enough for the two of them to manage. On a dreary and unpromising day, they set sail from a mud-bank in Chichester Harbor, in search of warmer climes and a happily stripped-down life. This account takes them as far as the journey across the Channel, across the Bay of Biscay, around Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean. This could be a rather tedious, dry account of miles traveled, under sail or motor, or storms and what they had for dinner and the wildly varying accounts of reception at various small yacht basins all the way along, but it is enlivened with a wonderful eye for surroundings and scenery and a nice sense of comedy. The description of Sandra wrestling with the Velcro of her foul-weather gear is self-deprecating and comic. She also has genuine, unflagging interest in all the places and people they encountered on their wandering journey.

The only thing lacking is pictures - I would have loved to have seen some of the pictures that are on the website in the book, as well as some pictures of the Voyager itself. A few interesting recipes would have been a charming addition, as well. How does one cook any sort of meal in a tiny place like the galley of a 40-foot catamaran? Perhaps the next two books will give away that secret.