Pineapple Chunks With Sardines: The true story of a family's sailing adventure. (Living Under Sail Book 1)

If you ever thought about getting a boat and sailing away, here is the first part of the story of a family sailing their boat from San Francisco to the North-East-Coast of England and back. This book, the first of a trilogy, spans eight countries and covers their adventures from San Francisco to Colon, at the Caribbean end of the Panama Canal.
Harvey and Shirley, with their two kids Barbara, 11, and Simon, 14, visit exotic ports, isolated islands and deserted coves. Some are surrounded by pristine desert landscapes and others hidden by dense jungle. Sailing on and on, sometimes for days and nights on end, four hours on and four off, they endure brutal heat and experience violent gales. After a year continually underway or at anchor, they lose the urge to hurry for harbor and become true sailors, living their lives on the sea. Operating independently, with no long-range communication or outside support, they are entirely dependent on their boat and themselves.
The story includes insights into life on a forty-five-foot boat during an ongoing cruise: home schooling, eating, sleeping and working the ship, advanced seamanship and pre-satellite navigation, managing ship’s stores and running the galley.

The book title, Pineapple Chunks with Sardines, pertains to breakfast, at dawn during a violent, force-eleven storm in the Bay of Biscay, January 17th, 1988. The menu was random because only Shirley, who was off watch and asleep, knew the code marked on the unlabeled cans. In the euphoria of recovery from seasickness, I ate it with relish.