Outward Leg

After having his left leg amputated and spending several years ashore, Tristan Jones decided to return to the sea. In October 1983, Jones and his only crew member, Wally Rediske, set out from San Diego in Outward Leg, a 36-foot trimaran, intending to circumnavigate the world from west to east by sail. Outward Leg chronicles the preparation for launch and the first part of that inspiring journey (continued in The Improbable Voyage). Tristan sailed down the western coast of Central...
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After having his left leg amputated and spending several years ashore, Tristan Jones decided to return to the sea. In October 1983, Jones and his only crew member, Wally Rediske, set out from San Diego in Outward Leg, a 36-foot trimaran, intending to circumnavigate the world from west to east by sail. Outward Leg chronicles the preparation for launch and the first part of that inspiring journey (continued in The Improbable Voyage). Tristan sailed down the western coast of Central America through the Panama Canal to a small Columbian town. There he fought for survival against hostile natives, drug dealers and uncooperative port officers. He sailed on to Venezuela, Aruba, and the Dominican Republic during its 1984 revolution, then up the coast of North America to New York. After crossing the Atlantic for the twentieth time in his life, he finally returned to St. Katherine's Dock in London where he had begun his seagoing adventure thirty years before. With wry humor and inimitable style, Tristan tells his story, a story of how I met with disaster in the midst of triumph, and how I struggled to overcome it. It is the tale of how I returned to sea despite almost unimaginable obstacles placed in my way by the fates. It is the account of how I turned a desperate situation into an opportunity to serve others. It is also the tale of how I incidentally sailed 14,000 miles on my way around the world.