Books in the A Cruising Memoir series

In Hear the Ocean Sing, the final volume of Jan Mitchell's cruising memoirs, she takes the reader to sea with her and husband Ian. Despite experiencing a dismasting, they also wonder at the beauties of the ocean, its creatures and the pristine wildernesses they visit. They sail to remote places most people will never visit, like Bathurst Harbour in Tasmania and Stewart Island in southern New Zealand, showing what can be achieved by ordinary people who have the determination and persistence to follow their dreams. Jan also documents her observations of changes in the oceans over the past forty years. She notes the decline in fish numbers and seabird populations as well as changes in ocean currents, leading to increases in water temperature - all effects of climate change.

In February 1974, Jan and Ian Mitchell, cruising novices, set off to circumnavigate the world in their Top Hat 25 foot yacht, Caprice. Many adventures later, they returned to Sydney in November 1977, with two-year-old Jamie (born in Durban, South Africa) and Jan pregnant with their second son. Four and a half months later, David was born.Ian looked after the children while Jan wrote articles for yachting magazines. She also wrote the cover story for an August edition of Women's Day. This book contains a compilation of those fourteen articles plus one from Ian about their shakedown voyage, published in Australian Sailing. Jan has added many more photographs of their trip and a history of the Top Hats.The Mitchells write about seasickness, gales, learning to navigate, coping with strong currents, repairing a rigging failure at sea, friendships with others in the cruising community, the joys of tropical islands and more.These articles were widely read in 1978 and inspired many would-be sailors to buy a boat. Some set out to sail the world. We hope their story will inspire you too.