The titular whale arrives at the very beginning of this story and within minutes destroys Auralyn, the small boat that Maurice and Maralyn Bailey are sailing across the Pacific Ocean back in 1973. In doing that, it sets us off on another journey, turning upside down the more common nautical tale of a couple who go to sea to pursue a dream, and escape from the “narrowness” they perceive in life on land.
As the first part of this absorbing real-life story revealed in yesterday s Mail, Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, a couple on a round-the-world yacht adventure, became adrift in a dinghy in the Pacific.