Three Ways to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist Afloat

Chris Stewart had a long and eclectic list of jobs. From some of the most glamorous careers, such as being the original drummer in Genesis, to the more offbeat, a sheep shearer and circus performer, he had done it all ... or almost all. So when he is offered the chance to captain a sailboat in the Greek Islands one summer, something he had never done, he jumps at the chance. Ever the optimist, Stewart is undaunted by the fact that he's never actually sailed before!

So begins the hilarious and wild adventures of Three Ways to Capsize a Boat. From setting the boat on fire in the Aegean Sea-not once, but several times-to his not-so-grant arrival in Spetses to meet the owners of the boat (who says it isn't graceful to plow into the dock as a means of coming to a stop?), Stewart quickly catches the sailing bug. At the end of the summer, as he faces the dreary prospect of going back to sheep shearing, he jumps at the chance to be part of a crew retracing Viking Leif Eriksson's historic journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Five months on a small sailboat with seven other people in the freezing waters of the Atlantic would sound like punishment to most people, but not to Stewart! He takes it all in stride-and always with his unfailing optimism and good spirits. From coming to terms with the long, cold nights at sea to battling intense seasickness and managing to use the bathroom during a massive storm (a lot harder than you'd think!), Stewart Keeps his good humor...but learns, in the end, that perhaps that best things in life are worth coming ashore for.

Three Ways to Capsize a Boat is travel writing at is best, crackling with Chris Stewart's Zest for life, irresistible humor, and unerring lack of foresight. Dry land never looked more welcoming!