Under Wide and Starry Skies – the book

To view a selection of illustrations from Under Wide and Starry Skies, please visit the Under Wide and Starry Skies Gallery. For reviews and extracts please see below.

For a 90 minute illustrated talk on the book, featuring 10 destinations click here.

Cast off the lines and discover 50 of the most fabulous off-the-beaten-track sailing destinations on our planet.

If you own a sailing boat, chances are that you’ve wondered what it would be like to throw in your job, cast off and sail over the horizon.

Here are 50 out-of-the way destinations to encourage you to sell up and go (or enjoy a temporary escape) with practical tips including formalities, the prevailing weather and GPS positions. The selection of locations is based on over 70,000 miles of sailing. Some (St Helena, Cocos Keeling) are classic yet remote destinations that have been favoured by circumnavigators ever since the days of Joshua Slocum. Others (in Japan, Patagonia or the Pacific Northwest) have been chosen as perfect examples of the attractions of those regions. Common denominators are protection from the weather, scenic beauty and historic and/or human interest. And the fact that, while solitude is not guaranteed, you won’t be troubled by the arrival of a cruising flotilla or by a novice dragging anchor onto you.

Each anchorage is introduced with a lively account describing the place, its history and people (if any) as well as the author and his crew’s adventures. Each account is followed by a beautifully hand-drawn sketch of the anchorage and an information box.

Here are the destinations covered in the Pacific:

And here are the Atlantic/Indian Ocean destinations:

Under Wide and Starry Skies is published in softcover and electronic formats.

Electronic and softcover are now available from the publishers (Bloomsbury) in the UK and Europe and in North America. It can be ordered at most outlets, including Amazon.

Reviews

Latitude 38 (San Francisco) – December 2025

Under Wide and Starry Skies (Nicholas Coghlan, $35) — We’re of the opinion that you can’t have too many cruising guides, which is why we were more than a little enamored of this new book, especially because the destinations it discusses are off the beaten path. Over the last 40- some years, Nick Coghlan and his wife Jenny have sailed some 70,000 offshore miles in two different boats — both of which were only 27 feet long. With a couple of exceptions, these 50 recommendations are for places “where you won’t be troubled by the arrival of a cruising flotilla or by a novice dragging anchor into you.” Furthermore, “none can be reached in a charter yacht or by a daysail; you will need your own boat.” We can’t speak to how well Coghlan covers the places we have never been (which is most of them), but for the few we have visited, he does a great job, augmenting each entry with an “If You Go…” page that addresses yearly weather, any needed permits or restrictions, specific charts and other reference materials. The writing itself is so appealing that we found ourselves enjoying “visits” to places like Luderitz, Namibia, and Ascension Island, even though we will likely never go to these places.

Flying Fish, Ocean Cruising Club – 2025

Published in hard cover by Adlard Coles (bloomsbury.com) at £22 / US$35. 336 pages (156 x 232mm), most bearing a colour photograph, chartlet or drawing. ISBN 978-1-3994-1375-6.

Nicholas Coghlan and his partner Jenny have sailed more than 70,000 miles over the last 40 years in two yachts, Tarka the Otter and Bosun Bird, both quite small at only 27ft. Their aim in this book is to suggest some of the more unusual places to visit under sail, so getting away from the well-travelled and often crowded routes.

The 50 anchorages described are very varied. None are truly extreme, in fact most are reasonably accessible and safe, but none can be visited in a charter boat or by a day sail so the chances of solitude are high. Destinations include islands and harbours in the North and South Pacific, the South Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, and on the west coast of the USA and Canada. Each is described in detail and illustrated by a sketch chart, with information including navigational aids, entry formalities, security risks, cultural differences and what you might find on arrival. It makes no claims to be a pilot book, of course, and should be viewed as a supplement to the usual charts and guides, not a replacement.

The author’s experiences, along with fascinating historical details – several places had visits long ago from the very early explorers and navigators – make for very interesting reading even if you have little chance of actually visiting these places yourself. It’s a perfect book to dip into and would bring back great memories for anyone whose cruising, possibly many years earlier, included some of these destinations – six of them for this reviewer.

There are sketch charts and evocative colour photos on almost every page and, because each chapter is complete in itself, the destinations in Under Wide and Starry Skies can be read in any order. There’s well-researched historical and cultural information together with observations on how things change, places that were considered too dangerous for yachts forty years ago are now okay and vice-versa. Likewise costs: in 1974 it cost US$100 for a 40ft yacht to pass through the Panama Canal, by 2025 it was more than US$2,000.

Excellently written, beautifully produced and very entertaining, Under Wide and Starry Skies is highly recommended.

University of Oxford Alumni Magazine (QUAD) – November 2025

Under Wide and Starry Skies: 50 Sailing Destinations in Seas Less Travelled by Nicholas Coghlan (Adlard Coles/Bloomsbury, 2025)

A previous contributor to ‘Off the Shelf’ with Sailing to the Heart of Japan (2024), Nicholas Coghlan has followed up with this most impressive volume, aimed at sailors who might want to push off into deeper waters. Nicholas (Queen’s, 1973) and his partner Jenny (Wolfson, 1973) have, he reminds us, sailed over 70,000 miles at this point, which is rather mind-blowing to the rest of us, whether or not land lubbers. What we get here is an immaculately organised book which pulls off a very difficult feat, of simultaneously telling a narrative that begins with their very first foray into deep water cruising (Isla Guadalupe the destination featured, a Mexican island) but not so as to sacrifice a military level of organisation so that you can scan the contents and see a comprehensive treatment of possible destinations, all over the globe – North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian Ocean and Africa, South Atlantic, North Atlantic and Caribbean. And it’s all covered with such aplomb. Incidents, narratives, stories, people met, lobsters traded, wood carvings acquired, weather and waves. It’s all here in technicolour. But balancing each atoll and island is the hard information section – what, how, where, and whether there are any dangers. So we have a personable encyclopaedia of cruising destinations backgrounded by 40 years of adventurous sailing, fabulously consistent maps and archival photos that bring it all to life. Any other observations? Well yes – the dexterity of a diplomat helps. He addresses the ‘isn’t the world too dangerous’ objection head on. No it isn’t, he insists. Colombia used to be out of bounds but now it’s back on. Venezuela has gone the other way (but is still the final destination of the book, Cayo Herradura, Isla La Tortuga: ‘consult widely if you decide to go’). Change is what happens over time but that is all: do your homework. His maps offer a completely fresh perception of a world full of adventure and open to visitors, and as he points out he hasn’t sailed into Antarctica. He’s not describing life and death adventuring but cruising that anyone can accomplish if they get their sails in order. On the other hand, these are destinations beyond the reach of tourists and charters. So they fall into the category of real adventure. To be fair they did have a hair-raising incident in the Solomon Islands, it should be said.

Boating New Zealand – November 2025

Do you know of the fine anchorages in the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, off the northeastern tip of Brazil? Or the varied delights and challenges of Kabashima Island and the Goto Rego Archipelago in Japan? Or what it’s like to sail at Alkwasir Island on the Blue Nile in Khartoum? Me neither.

And that’s the great attraction of this wonderful sailing book. Which, even if you never actually visit these places, as author Nicholas Coghlan did in a succession of 27-foot (!) yachts, will stand as a remarkable work offering vicarious travel. Complete with many oddities – like the golf course on a remote island’s airport runway.

It’s a colourful and inspirational book. Practical too, with each destination ending with pages titled If you go, containing all the really useful, real-world gen, such as Entry Formalities, Getting There, Distances, Weather, Anchorages, Charts, Reference, and general knowledge too. Great photos and colourful maps (but not nautical charts) included as well.

As Nicholas says in the introduction, “If you own a sailing boat, no matter how small or unsuitable, chances are that you’ve wondered what it would be like to throw in your job, cast off, and sail over the horizon.”

And even if he admits, “The selections made – after 70,000 miles of cruising with my partner Jenny… are highly personal,” they all amount to a superlative travelogue. And one well worth tagging along with them. Go for it.

Yachting Monthly – February 2025

Island Cruising (New Zealand) – June 2025

Currents Magazine, Bluewater Cruising Association, Vancouver – April 2025

THE Book for Every Offshore & Armchair Sailor

Mary Anne Unrau, Traversay III, Waterline 43′, Cutter-rigged steel hull, April 20th, 2025

Under Wide and Starry Skies: 50 Sailing Destinations in Seas Less Travelled. Nicholas Coghlan. Adlard Coles. Forthcoming Canadian Publication: May 6th, 2025.

This beautiful book is replete with colour photographs, maps and the narrative you need to sail – in actuality or imaginatively – to these most rarely visited places on the globe. You will gain the geographic knowledge, the formal knowledge (of charting, entry and bureaucratic formalities, weather information and reference books) as well as helpful insights into the history and provisioning opportunities in the destinations. You will also meet some of the inhabitants that Nicholas and partner Jenny Coghlan met in their travels to these diverse locales.

The book is helpfully organized into five large geographic sections: I – North Pacific and North America; II – South Pacific; III – Indian Ocean and Africa; IV – South Atlantic; and V – North Atlantic and the Caribbean.

In the Introduction Nick states the formula he uses to make the information easy to understand, even for a beginning Offshore Adventurer. He gives map and geographic information and recounts his and Jenny’s own adventures in getting to the destination; forwards a brief essay describing the place, history and people (if there are any); discusses any security concerns; and gives a story of their own adventures including “mistakes made and lessons learned”.

Of all the 50 locations highlighted, Traversay III had sailed to or stopped at only 13 of them. Of those places we shared, I discovered that we often had totally different – yet still memorable – experiences, demonstrating what makes offshore cruising always unique and exciting.

Nick and Jenny completed a circumnavigation part way through their travels at a location west of Mexico between Isla Guadaloupe and Clarion. I was fascinated to read that they saw elephant seals here – a species we had only seen in the much farther south and colder South Georgia in the South Atlantic.

We had been to see the gigantic bears in Geographic Harbor Alaska and had heard about the death of a self-styled ‘Bear Whisperer’, but in Nick’s book I read the definitive story of how he and his girlfriend lost their lives to a local ‘brown’ bear (Grizzly in Canada).

In Puerto Eden, Chile, we ate meals at Dona Maria’s and watched the inauguration of President Obama on her television in the company of a celebrating American family, but missed seeing the edible seaweed Dona had been drying – her alternative food source.

Caleta Brecknock, Patagonia, Chile, #16 of Nick’s 50 destinations, was also visited by Traversay III. The immensity of the landscape was so fantastic; you can barely see our little boat in the lower right side of the photo. We were alone for a few days, then a BBC-chartered vessel arrived. We shared our dive photos with the photographer and got ‘mud’ maps for Antarctica… then made our plans to sail to Antarctica.

We did not see Robert Louis Stevenson’s epitaph printed on his tombstone in American Samoa, the poem from which Nick’s title Under Wide and Starry Skies is derived. Nor did we encounter the women of Twin Waterfall Bay in Vanuatu performing their bespoke Water Music while washing their clothes under the falls. However, I feel lucky to never have had one of Jenny’s experiences: while she was off-watch and relaxing with a book in the cabin, a curious colourfully-striped poisonous sea snake slid along her bare thighs! It must have come up through the cockpit drains and then wriggled up the companionway and into the boat.

One of their opportunities, which even well-travelled world sailors rarely get to, was Alkwasir Island near Khartoum Sudan in mid-Africa. This was during a posting with the Canadian Diplomatic Corp. Nick and Jenny relaxed with sailing during a continuous and terrifying spate of ‘terror-tourism’. His experiences are described in his earlier book entitled Collapse of a Country. We owe thanks to our diplomats who carry the burden of extending Canada’s good name and the possibility of a new life in our country to some war-torn and murderous postings. Nick describes the relief of leaving work and getting to the Blue Nile Sailing Club (established in 1926). The Club is poised at the junction between the Blue Nile and the White Nile. Here they competed on a Khartoum One Design – boats designed by Morgan Giles and fashioned from recycled galvanized steel to include buoyancy tanks, a retractable centreboard, a Bermuda-rigged mainsail and a jib.

Do not be like us and regret missing some of the many special places listed in this book. We had concentrated more on the cold and windy places and by-passed the world’s warmer and more accessible beauties!

The index makes it easy to reference the destinations that are of particular interest to you and your shipmate(s).

The book will be released in Canada on May 6th, 2025, so keep an eye out for when it is available in a bookstore near you! I don’t recommend getting the eBook version, because much of the book’s information is in the maps, and inspiration comes from the colour photos. The publisher, Adlard Coles, is feted in the nautical community for publishing the best information on a variety of marine subjects.

Nick is offering a special discount to BCA members: to get the Promo Code and place the order, one will need to log in to the BCA website, go to ‘Tradewinds Buy and Sell’ and then to ‘Discounts Offered to BCA Members’.

This book would make a wonderful gift to parents, family, or friends who are mistrustful of your ambition to leave your job, house, and belongings in order to sail your little boat off into the large and possibly dangerous world. They may well spend hours contemplating possible adventures you want to take, and which they can now share in the comfort of their smaller world!

Under Wide and Starry Skies will create dreams; if you are fortunate enough to own a sailboat, it will inspire you to GO. If you think your boat is too small, take courage from Nick and Jenny’s experience of having completed the described experiences in two small 27-foot sailboats: first Tarka the Otter, and now their current boat, Bosun Bird. As Nicholas states: “Don’t dally too long. It’s always later than you think.”

Nick and Jenny, July 2015, when we had the pleasure of meeting them at Amook Island on the west coast of Kodiak Island.

Royal Cruising Club (UK) – April 2025

Under Wide and Starry Skies is certainly not your average cruising guide. It comprises part sailing autobiography of its author and his wife in successive 27 foot cruisers over almost 40 years and 70,000 miles, and detailed descriptions of fifty very remote anchorages spread literally all around the globe.

Each of the chapters covering the destinations include interesting details of when and how Nicholas and Jenny Coghlan came to it, with an occasional cautionary tale of disaster narrowly avoided. The reader can chart the progression from celestial navigation (including attempting a theoretical method of obtaining position from a single sun sight when the sun was directly overhead) to electronic methods.

As the voyages described cover almost 40 years, many of the experiences and characters described will no longer be in existence, but they give a flavour of the location. In some cases the potted history of the area revealed fascinating snippets (e.g. how Thousand Islands Dressing was invented) and give useful background information.

The book includes entry formalities as at the time of writing but acknowledges that requirements change often with little or no notice, and current details are usually obtainable from the web. Equally health and security considerations may need to be updated before setting off.

This is, primarily, a very enjoyable read to while away the “off” season and dream about locations for future cruises. I am sure some of the more intrepid RCC sailors will say “Been there – done that” for some of the destinations, particularly the South Pacific and South Atlantic, but perhaps the Commodore might consider a special award for the first member to sail to Alkwasir Island , negotiating 6 cataracts on the Nile! The book is available from Adlard Coles at £19.80

W J C L

Sailing Today – April 2025

Coast (UK) – April 2025

Book Hub (New Zealand) – February 2025

Cruising Association (UK) – January 2025

Having sailed over 70,000 nm with his partner, Jenny, Nicholas Coghlan is well qualified to write about these 50 Sailing Destinations in Seas Less Travelled as the book is sub-titled. Split into five sections the destinations are numbered on the maps of a) North and South Pacific Ocean and b) North and South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The following introduction clearly explains his reasons for encouraging sailors to expand their horizons to include a selection of places they have visited during the 40 years of sailing in their two yachts – both 27ft long.

The layout of each destination follows the same pattern which is well arranged. Each stopping place has an introductory story, starting with their very first offshore experience forty years ago. Nicholas calls these stories ‘essays’ but I think that is too staid a word as I was occasionally caught laughing out loud during my reading sessions; all well written with anecdotes and information in equal quantity. There are maps with the anchorage/marina noted as well as other points of interest visited, many pictures and a few sketches are also included which adds to the appeal of each area. The sections are completed by a page or two entitled ‘If you go…’ which contains the detailed information regarding the destination under headings such as Entry Formalities, Getting There, Distances, Weather etc.

The 327 pages of narrative are crammed with interesting stories and loads of informative material, even if some of these ‘essays’ are a bit dated the information in the panels is not. There is an Appendix, A Note on Charts, which makes for interesting reading covering as it does the decline in the production of paper charts and the rise of the use of Google Maps/Earth, plus charting information used within the book.

Reviewed by Sandy Duker