“In a world awash with dime-a-dozen poseurs and wannabe celebrities, it comes as a delightful surprise to cross tacks at last with someone who is high on the list of life’s genuine heroes. Charles Blundell, better known as Chas from Tas, is a Man’s Man, a world-renowned sailor and one of the sea’s great story-tellers and raconteurs. This is the first in a trilogy that will in time become the indispensable companion for all those who hear the sea’s siren call and yet can but dream of “the vagrant gypsy life”
“Chas from Tas may stow all his worldly possessions in just a couple of well-travelled seabags, but he has in his head and in his heart a priceless wealth of experience that most of us can scarcely begin to imagine.
In the late 1960’s he left Tasmania and set out alone to explore the world, Chas made a vow that he would never waste a moment of his life sitting behind a desk. True to his word, he embarked upon what might best be described as The Voyage of a Lifetime, a journey in which he has probably logged more sea miles under sail than any man alive. His life before the mast, captured so vividly in Renegades at Sea, is chock-a-block with the kind of hilarious and hair-raising experiences that provoke either gales of laughter or head-shaking incredulity. Turning page after page, I laughed so hard that my ribs ached.
With the aid of his co-author Juliet ‘Fruity’ Prentice, beautifully polished phrases capture convincing dialogue of a kind that might have come from the pen of Conrad or Kipling.
Chas from Tas is a one-off original. There is no one else quite like him and there probably never will be again. Which is a very good reason to buy a copy of this splendid book and stand by to purchase the second volume”.