Hear the Ocean Sing
Hear the Ocean Sing is the final volume in Jan Mitchell’s trilogy detailing the sailing years of Jan and husband Ian.
In the third volume of Jan Mitchell’s sailing memoirs, Hear the Ocean Sing she tells of her own and Ian’s sufficient recovery in health to return to ocean cruising. They dream of sailing to Chile and Cape Horn in a sturdy steel yacht. But reality soon hits hard that Libelle and the Chilean channels are not for them. Three years later, they find Osprey A, a tough Brolga 33, at Scarborough Marina in Queensland.
In this whirlwind tale, Jan takes the reader to sea with her and Ian, experiencing severe seasickness and a dismasting, but also wondering at the beauties of the ocean, its creatures and the pristine wildernesses they visit.
She also observes the alterations in wind patterns, currents, water and air temperatures as well as the decrease in corals and other sea life. These are all symptomatic of the changing climate that is altering our planet’s weather and the world of ocean cruising.
Review of Hear the Ocean Sing by John Pennyfather, member of CCCA :
Hear the Ocean Sing was launched in October, 2019. This is the final section of Jan Mitchell’s cruising memoir that covers the Mitchell’s nearly 40 years of ocean cruising.
In this volume, Jan tells how she and Ian tried to cope with a beautifully-designed forty foot steel yacht, Libelle, but found her too heavy. They sold her to Tim Lamble and returned to their aspiration to own a Brolga 33, eventually finding one in Queensland in 2004.
Together, the Mitchells sailed Osprey A on three long cruises and two shorter ones. By 2012, Jan’s head injuries (originally damaged when Osprey tipped over in Bass Strait in 2005) meant her balance and consequent sea sickness stopped her from continuing to make ocean passages. Two in a Top Hat came out in 2011 and in 2015, Jan published the second book of her ocean sailing memoir, Crossings in Realitas.
Now the memoir is complete with the launch in October 2019 of the third volume.