Hostage

I'm sure there were many people saying "great you could be here" at the 2012 London Boat Show, but there were two people for whom that meant a lot more than just politeness.

Above are Paul and Rachel Chandler signing copies of their book Hostage, finally free from their terrible ordeal and safe back in blighty.

I had a brief chat with Rachel about their capture by Somali pirates and the motivation behind the re-arrangements of the VOR leg to Abu Dhabi. It must have been really awful - one of my greatest fears when travelling to Pakistan was kidnapping.

They are already planning their next voyage - to South America. I asked about Venezuela, having had a great time there, but it too has a bit of a piracy problem.

Its truly great that they are free and able to come to the Boat Show and I'm looking forward to reading my copy of their book.