Yacht broker and freelance writer Degnon's breezy account of his extended voyage provides entertaining adventure and a refresher course in geography. One unidentified year, with Celia Lowe as crew mate, he set out from New England in Taku, a 41-foot ketch; first stop, the Caribbean, where they picked up additional crew before sailing throught he Panama Canal and on to Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji. In everyport they met other yachties-long-distance, blue-water cruising has its own culture. They spent six months in New Zealand, fitting Taku and sightseeing. Next, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guines and Australia where they has a rough time finding theor way through the Great Barrier Reef in a storm. Then they headed home via Indonesia (Bali), the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Publishers Weekly