London Boat Show 2017: Chris Eakin & A Race Too Far

One of my favourite haunts of the London Boat Show is the book shop where there opportunities to meet the authors, and this year was no exception.

First up was author and journalist Chris Eakin who's written a book called A Race Too Far about the 1968 Golden Globe Race which has also been made into a film, The Mercy, due to be released later this year.

Its a dramatic - and tragic - story and Chris's book tells the story not just of the race but what happened next to each competitor and their families. Full review to come once I've read it.

We had a brief chat about sailing - he sails a 34-foot Hallberg-Rassy and we ended up discussing high latitude sailing, where he has considerable experience, having done the NW passage with none other than Jimmy Cornell.

I mentioned the talk by Cornell I went to at the Cruising Association and how he mentioned he'd become a sterner skipper, saying he can't "afford to be nice all the time". At this Chris gave a wry smile - from what I gather it was a difficult voyage.

We also had a good chat about writing in general and life as a author.

I have quite a stack of books post-Christmas but this one must be high up the pile.