A Year on El Oro

Description

An offer comes out of the blue from an old family friend to borrow his magnificent 70 ft timber ketch. El Oro is a beautiful yacht, elegant and stately; built in the 1970’s with ocean racing in mind. She’s also heavy, complex and there’s a lot to go wrong.

This book is the story of an unexpected opportunity realised. It’s also a tale of resilience, tenacity and fears confronted as the author and his wife almost bite off more than they can chew. Often short-handed they overcome multiple dramas and near disasters as they make their way down the east coast of America, to the Caribbean and then across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Helped by a litany of friends, family and random people met along the way, they make a journey that turns out to be as rewarding as it is challenging.

Author Information

Richard Dumas grew up in the UK and after a short and un-distinguished stint as a British Army Officer, met an Australian girl and followed her to Sydney. He has lived in Australia ever since. He learned to sail as a child mainly because he was hopeless at sports involving balls. For a while he owned a small yacht built in the 1960s which he kept in Pittwater, but now he’s lucky enough to have friends who sometimes invite him to sail on theirs. He lives on a farm in country NSW with his wife and a few cows and from time to time can be found staring out of the window dreaming of the sea. This is his first book.