Edward AllcardBorn in 1914, Edward Allcard was crossing oceans - and writing books about it - before Eric and Susan Hiscock ever set out from the British Isles, and although they are rightly deserving of fame as the first world-girdling cruising couple, Edward Allard's exploits certainly surpass theirs both for duration and drama. Seldom could he ever claim, as Eric Hiscock almost invariably did, to have made another uneventful passage. Instead, his stories are replete with accounts of gales and other excitements. In 1948, Allcard sailed alone from Gibraltar straight to New York. Two years later, on crossing back again, he became the first yachtsman to sail both ways single-handed across the Atlantic. Or at any rate, his passage from New York to the Azores was completed solo; but on setting out from the islands he found that he had a young and beautiful stowaway aboard...! In the Canaries in 1957, Edward Allcard met Peter Tangvald - then a novice, but soon to become well-known in the cruising fraternity. Both anxious to get to the West Indies as quickly as possible, the men challenged each other to a single-handed duel; and thus the first ever east-to-west solo transatlantic race was created. From this first encounter a strong friendship was formed and, many years later, when Tangvald was lost during the wreck of his boat, it was Edward Allcard and his wife who took Tangvald's teenage son into their home and into their hearts. In the interim, Edward Allcard continued his lone voyage around the world via Cape Horn; and eventually, in 1973 - some 16 years after starting out - he completed the expedition. By now married and with a young child, Allcard subsequently bought an old wooden ketch, which the family restored and then sailed across the Atlantic and throughout the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. In 2006, at the age of 92, Edward Allcard finally sold his last boat and moved to the Pyrenees. Now in his 102nd year, he continues to live in this mountain eyrie. Read More Read Less