Beginning in the 1960s, this book tells of the real life adventures of the author as a boy. Encouraged by his parents to become more independent, Peter decided to see how far he could get in his family's small open dinghy Calypso. Calypso was a wayfarer, a small and very popular class of open dinghy; a boat designed for pottering around coastlines. But along with the occasional brave crewmate, Peter managed to sail her across the Channel, through the Bay of Biscay, down the French canals and into the Mediterranean, then up into the North Sea and the Baltic to Oslo, living aboard for three months at a time.