We have heard it all before, the spice of life is in the journey not the destination. This ‘pages from the logbook’ is a delightful idiosyncratic rendition of a journey that was eccentric in conception, cavalier in its enterprise and surprising in paradise discovered. After-all, what else would you expect when you put your 78 year old mother and a barrel of sherry on a small wooden boat casting off the lines to navigate the ‘ship wreck coast’ before you get anywhere at all, least of all ‘paradise’. Some may say a reckless endeavour and fortunate to tell the tale, others a calculated risk by an experienced mariner in the finest tradition. The trueness of this piece of navigation is in its integrity or indulgence in the pursuit of a far horizon with unwavering faith that paradise is found by steering a course inextricably wedded to unconstrained pursuit of imagination. Guided by this star, there is treasure to be found in the leaves of this tome as we, the reader, are taken through the Spice Islands, the indigos of the Indian Ocean, passing through sparkling delights of the Red Sea to the multifarious experiences of the Mediterranean and the serpentine waterways of Europe to return to Antipodean shores via the tranquility of the Pacific.