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September 1998. The Hamble.

 

Guy, an ex-navy man and skipper of a single mast sailboat, sadly faces the last week of the year’s sailing season as his new crew of four holiday makers, all strangers, begin to arrive.

 

The crew

 

Marcus, an intelligent, working-class optimist and workaholic career climber in his twenties, has booked the sailing holiday hoping to persuade the skipper to give him an RYA Yachtmaster qualification so that he will be invited to the drinks parties on the Sales Director’s yacht.

 

Brenda, a nervous, upper middle-class woman in her fifties has never set foot on a boat and it is her first holiday without her husband. Anxious and apologetic, she is adjusting to being on her own.

 

Antonia, an energetic ex-classical dancer in her mid-thirties is hoping that a much-needed holiday at sea will help her discover what she wants to do for the rest of her life.

 

John, a northerner in his forties is on a sad farewell mission that needs to be carried out at sea. Highly experienced at sailing, although only in dinghies, he is a stickler for following nautical rules and regulations and has a narrow-minded attitude regarding certain people.

 

After a few learning hiccups at sea and successfully managing to survive a storm, Guy and his mixed ability crew discover they are on a collision course leaving them no choice but to abandon ship. As they sit for hours in a life raft, coping with the humorous and dramatic side of their situation, they begin to reveal more about themselves.

By the time rescue is in sight, their lives have been changed.

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