These are the collected journals and poetry of Nicholas Heiney who died in 2006, aged 23, after taking his own life. These vivid writings about his adventures on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, together with his poetry, remained undiscovered until after his death. His parents, Paul and Libby Heiney were urged to publish them by Prof. Duncan Wu of Oxford University, Nick s former tutor, who realized the depth and maturity in both his prose and poetry. It is, as he writes in his introduction, a powerful piece of writing, exemplary in its sanity and clear-sightedness .