If you've ever dreamed of living on a boat and travelling to far flung corners of the world, but don't know where to start, then this is the book for you. The author bought an old steel ketch, lived on it for a decade, visited a great variety of countries, crossed an ocean and lived to tell the tale. His experience can help you find the right boat, the right training and help to turn your daydreams into a practical reality.As well as helping you find the ideal boat there is real world advice about insurance, safety, supporting yourself and much more. The lure of the sea is eternal. The Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Greeks all built mighty wooden ships to explore their Mediterranean world and in some cases beyond, the Romans likewise. Later came men like Drake, Raleigh, Columbus, Vasco Da Gama, Cook and many more. Later still we get the yachtsmen and women, some of whom became famous, Captain Joshua Slocum, Sir Francis Chichester, Sir Alec Rose, Sir Robin Knox Johnson, Clare Francis, John Ridgway, Chay Blyth, Shane Acton.They are but the tip of the iceberg. Thousands of people cross oceans, live on boats and explore their world, singly, in couples, as families. Statistically amongst the billions of people on an increasingly small planet those who've followed this lifestyle are insignificant, but there are enough people doing so, that living that way, as part of that community assumes an atmosphere of normality once you become a member. And in the middle of an ocean you can, even now, find peace and solitude to reflect and find your true self.Common to all in this eccentric group of people is a knowledge of the risks and a willingness, desire even to help one another, it's a wonderful community of like minded adventurers. Many more have dreamed of joining. Time was it wasn't so unusual to see yachts being built in gardens. At one time there was a craze for home built ferro cement yachts. Many are the unfinished projects and there are people forever preparing to go to sea but never quite ready, until illness or infirmity lets them off the hook.From the seventies onwards there was a boom in fibreglass boat building. Early fibreglass boats were heavily constructed as no one was really sure how the new material would stand up to the rigours of the sea. Westerly's in particular were Lloyds certificated and strongly built, many early examples are still giving good service.At the time of writing it's a buyers market with a vast array of boats from narrow boats