To Venture Further is the inspiring story of this memorable exploit by one of the finest sailing adventure writers of our time. Accompanied by his German mate, Thomas, and three disabled Thai youths, Jones makes the short but exceedingly difficult passage across the Kra in a small seagoing fishing boat. Facing floating debris, homemade dams, mechanical failure, and precariously low funds, Jones—whose left leg was amputated several years before—remains determined to win out against all obstacles, no matter how insurmountable they seem.
With characteristically acerbic wit, Jones offers shrewd commentary on the Westernization of modern Thailand, bemoaning the destruction of a once-idyllic land. And whether confronting a band of raucous teenage monks, outwitting pirates in the Gulf of Thailand, or cruising a dry riverbed by hitching his boat onto an elephant, he continues to exhibit the awesome stubbornness and implacable courage of a man willing to sacrifice all comforts for the unknown and seemingly impossible.
Tristan Jones was one of the most prolific and best-loved authors of sailing stories. A Welshman, he left school at age fourteen to work on sailing barges and spent the rest of his life at sea—in the Royal Navy, as a delivery skipper, and as a daring adventurer in search of new seagoing challenges. Jones wrote sixteen books, including Encounters of a Wayward Sailor published by Sheridan House.