In Forkbeard's Wake

With little experience beyond navigating dive boats in tropical waters, Ben Nimmo decided to cross the North Sea to the Baltic. He met divers, fishermen and archaeologists; got drunk with a Swedish dentist; nearly drowned in a force ten gale and discovered that people are the same across Europe.

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Suffering from culture shock following his successful pilgrimage from Canterbury to Compostela, Ben Nimmo set out again to see if the people in other parts of Europe would be as friendly as those he had met while busking. Deciding that his legs were too tired to walk any further, that travel by train or bus would be too passive, that hitch-hiking was either too fast (if it worked), or too slow (if it didn't) and that any other form of transport would require training, he settled on sailing. With little experience beyond navigating dive boats in tropical waters, Ben set out to cross the North Sea to the Baltic. He found a boat - "Peregrino", the pilgrim, a beautiful ten-year-old vessel with a hull that gleamed like a mirror - and set out on his next adventure.Meeting divers, fishermen and archaeologists; getting rip-roaringly drunk with a Swedish dentist, who taught him some new Rugby songs; gate crashing a jazz festival; nearly drowning in a force ten gale and having his boat appropriated as a playschool for a dozen children under the age of ten, Ben proved that people are indeed the same across Europe.