Anne Millen’s Tripping Over the Ocean is a thrilling addition to the ever-growing collection of sailing fiction.

Aria Stihl is a lawyer by day and a keen sailor after work and on weekends.  But she has a dream of doing a single-handed passage on her beloved “Trinkitat” to prove that she “can do it”, not only to herself, but also to honour her late father’s memory.

Aria loves nothing better than being out on the water, with the wind in her hair, salt spray in her face and not a care in the world.   She tries to get out on the water any chance she can get as she begins to formulate her plan for a blue-water passage from New Zealand to Vanuatu.  In between sailing, she has to manage the demands of her work, worrying about her younger sister’s love life and dealing with her own lack of a relationship following a marriage breakdown.

Following a near miss on the waters of Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour, Aria tries her best to quell the advances of the offending skipper.  But when he says he wants to get his boat to Fiji and needs a competent skipper, Aria starts to see it as an opportunity to gain some “blue-water” experience for her own single-handed dream.

After a chance encounter at the marina with Oscar, the ‘world’s best crew’, Aria starts to formulate her plan, calling on two more experienced crew for what she hopes will be a quick and easy passage to Fiji.  But despite the best laid plans, a voyage is never smooth sailing as Aria and her crew will discover.  Throw in some mysterious happenings and by the end of the voyage, everyone’s lives will be changed.

Author Anne Millen lived aboard for five years and completed a four year-circumnavigation around the world.  Her descriptions of life at sea and her knowledge of sailing imbue this story with a reality that those who have been there will understand and will encourage those who haven’t to get out there.

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Author: Anne Millen

Publisher:‎ Pumicestone Publishing – Anne Millen (December 1, 2023)

ISBN-13:‎ 978-0994164827