<p>In February 1974, Jan and Ian Mitchell, cruising novices, set off to circumnavigate the world in their Top Hat 25 foot yacht, <em>Caprice</em>. Many adventures later, they returned to Sydney in November&nbsp;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.</p><p>Ian looked after the children while Jan wrote articles for yachting magazines. She also wrote the cover story for an August edition of Women&rsquo;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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>