A Gypsy Life: Adventures of Clare and Edward Allcard Aboard Their Yacht Johanne

A Gypsy Life: Adventures of Clare and Edward Allcard Aboard Their Yacht Johanne by Allcard, Clare. Hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780393030723.

Clare Allcard and her husband, Edward, have dared to live a life that armchair adventurers can only dream about. Here Clare tells the story of their adventures aboard the Regina Johanne, a rotting, worm-riddled, 69-foot Baltic Trader they discovered beached in Antigua. Clare and Edward (a naval architect), their daughter Katy, and an ever-shifting crew spent twelve years on the Regina Johanne, working to replace rotten timbers, exterminating the worms that were devouring her hull, constructing a peculiar one-and-a-half poster bed in preparation for a cruise with Clares parents, and patching the frayed sails by hand. While repairing the boat, they sailed from Antigua to Nevis, England, France, Denmark, and other exotic ports. Clares insightful writing both addresses her familys personal experiences on the Regina Johanne and includes useful information about the ports they visited, critical advice on the predominant sailing conditions in each area, and characteristics of the various foreign cultures they encountered. Sailors and nonsailors alike will be inspired by Clares fascinating discussion of the familys nomadic lifestyle aboard the Regina Johanne.