Turtle Dove

About the Book

WoodenBoat Magazine called it "fulfillment of a unique vision." TURTLE DOVE is a true story of a 20-year journey of love. Based on a newsman´s vivid recollections and his detailed ship´s log entries, the book tells how a mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper undertook an enormous part-time backyard project -- the 12-year construction of a big ocean-going wooden sailboat, its triumphant launching, and then a voyage around the world with a colorful collection of volunteer crew members (33 in all), some of whom had never set foot on a boat before.

The trip took eight years, involved stops in 40 different countries and included several romances, two near-disasters, nude volleyball in the Caribbean, two trips through the Panama Canal, pool games with tattooed Maori tribesmen in New Zealand, solo trombone serenades in mid-ocean, all-night musicales with native pearl divers in the Tuamotus, and water tag with playful porpoises in the Red Seas.

About the Author

Jack Thompson was a teacher and a newspaper reporter, rewrite man, and editor. He built his own wooden boat and sailed it around the world. During his eight-year voyage, he lived in such places as the San Blas Islands of Panama, the Galapagos, the Marquesas, Tahiti, and Moorea -- all scenes of action in his novel Naked in the Rain. Currently he Is living on his boat, Turtle Dove. in Estepona, Spain. The 37-foot ketch is remarkably similar to Mockingbird, the classic yacht sailed by characters Casey and Finnegan in the novel. All characters in the book, both good and bad, are fictional.