Overview

10th Anniversary Edition A naive young man, a tiny sailing boat, and the Bay of Biscay. What could possibly go wrong? Disillusioned with normal life in the late 1980s, the author bought an 18ft sailboat, made her his home, and set off alone in search of something more. With no real sailing experience, no GPS, and only a pile of paper charts and a stubborn streak to guide him, he headed out into the unknown. Single-handed along the south coast of England to Falmouth. Working as yacht delivery crew. A near shipwreck on Spain's Costa da Morte - the Coast of Death. Fire onboard in the Atlantic. And finally, a foolish attempt to cross the Bay of Biscay in his own tiny boat. It didn't go well. A Foolish Voyage is the true story of that misadventure. Told plainly and without heroics, it's about what happens when you chase freedom with more enthusiasm than skill, and somehow survive to tell the tale. This 10th Anniversary Edition has been lightly updated and includes a new note from the author reflecting on the journey since. But the heart of the story remains unchanged: it's about uncertainty, longing, resilience, and the strange, quiet pull of the sea. It's a book not just about sailing, but about life. What happens at the very limits of physical, emotional, and mental capacity. And how personal tragedy can lead to unexpected discovery: that hidden deep inside all of us is the perseverance and passion needed to pursue even the wildest goals. It might just start you on your own Foolish Voyage. The foolishness didn't stop there- In A Foolish Odyssey, the author spends years building a 38ft ocean-going catamaran in a barn miles from the sea. In A Foolish Escape, he tries to live the dream and stay afloat, literally and figuratively, through four unpredictable years afloat in the Mediterranean.

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Neil Hawkesford, sometimes known as Foolish Neil, has built a life around daring to do the things most people only dream of. From building his own boat and sailing it with his partner to the Mediterranean, to writing books that challenge the ""sensible"" path, his work is united by one philosophy: being ""foolish"" is often the wisest choice of all. His first book, A Foolish Voyage, became the starting point of The Foolish Trilogy, a series that chronicles not just adventures at sea, but the journey of building a boat, casting off, and discovering freedom under sail. Neil's curiosity is wide-ranging, whether exploring Ancient Cornwall or Artificial Intelligence, the subject of his two most recent books, he approaches each with down-to-earth honesty. He also writes on Substack: Foolish Living (philosophy, money, sailing) and No Drama AI (practical guides to AI).

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