Simple. You jump into the sea – at 1.5 degrees below zero – with a hammer taped to your fist and, dressed only in soft pile clothing, spend half an hour underwater without a mask hammering the propeller back into the boat. That's five times longer than it normally takes sub-zero water to kill a man.

This is just one incident in a continual stream of improbable adventures that go to make up One F*****g Thing After Another, the rollicking tale of two years spent exploring the coast of West Greenland in a 50 foot steel yacht.

Following publication of his critically acclaimed book of Australia's first Arctic expedition, Seventh Journey, Earl de Blonville's latest book promises to take the reader on an adventure filled with wonderful characters, faulty engines, massive icebergs and a string of disasters and near misses that tested the author's courage and quick thinking.

It opens as the author (appointed Director of Tall Ships - the national event where Prime Minister Bob Hawke officially launched Australia's Bicentenary to an international television audience) is approached by a Polish communist spy intent on ensnaring him in a classic ‘honey trap'.

In order to return to his yacht in Greenland, Earl raises a fee-paying crew of multi-millionaires who agree to join him as he explores largely uncharted waters in the Arctic wilderness. Incidents follow, one after the other: Earl is forced to strip to his underwear and swim 25 yards in sub-zero water to save the expedition's inflatable boat, and at Hawaii airport he is arrested when authorities suspect his navigational sextant is a bomb. This is a rollicking un-put-downable read.

If you enjoyed Eric Newby's 'A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush', you will love Earl's light-hearted and self-deprecating style as he faces one challenge after another.

Book details:
Soft cover
16-page colour section
Perfect bound

Publication:
2011