Jack Binder

True Stories from FarawayA selction of short stories from our three most popular books; Two's a Crew, Where Wild Winds Blow, and Around the World in Ever Increasing Circles, plus short stories published in Australian periodicals.

Jack and Jude, with eyes cognisant of the past, have witnessed more of Earth than many famous explorers. Through hard work and considerable gumption, they have achieved their great sailing feats with little assistance. The myriad life experiences gained in their lifetime charge them to extol the bountiful adventures still available to all human souls, and to record the degradation they have witnessed.Recorded in Where Wild Winds Blow is their double-crossing of the challenging Great Southern Ocean. Along with the action are recollections of frightening events when raising their sons aboard Banyandah more than thirty years earlier. Often asked about their greatest mishap, their worst storms, and pirate attacks, they answer these questions in this book. Recorded within its pages, Australia's early explorers share their perspective on locations encountered on this journey. And, similar to Sir Francis Chichester, they bare their fears and intimacies and they are also evocative to stimulate and invite dreaming. Also included is plenty of technical advice simply explained for sailors and armchair adventurers. In 2010, Jack and Jude self-published Two's a Crew, their account of circumnavigating Australia on board Banyandah after a sixteen-year hiatus on the land. Linking these two books runs a similar vein: Ours is a troubled world. Her essence under threat. Her wildlife endangered.

Two's a CrewOne of the world's greatest adventures - Following Flinders wake around Australia - 9000 nautical miles across six climatic zones, Jack and Jude explore their adopted homeland. An ancient country, one filled with beauty, yet harsh, remote, and containing mysteries that still baffle the greatest minds.Jack and Jude have travelled the remoter parts of Earth for more than forty years. Land trips across America and Europe were followed by a honeymoon trek from England to South Africa. Travelling to Australia in 1969, they homebuilt a ferrocement yacht while starting a family. That took three years of arduous work and their sons Jason and Jerome were walking by the time it was completed, so they grabbed the dream of sharing nature and adventure before what seemed mandatory school years. Miraculously their journey lasted not the one-year imagined, but the next fifteen. In ever increasing circles, the Four J's explored Earth, touching 80 countries while they boat-schooled their sons to the final year of high school.Jack and Jude are grandparents now, and still aboard the same vessel have just circumnavigated Australia. In their lifetime, mankind has dominated the wild kingdom, taking what's wanted, leaving less for every creature. In doing this, the balance of Nature has been upset. And while no one would deny the improvements enjoyed today, Jack and Jude often wonder if such a growing impact isn't robbing all Earth's creatures of a better life.Comparing today's world with what they had seen on previous travels their stories are peppered with historical notes woven into the adventurous fabric of two grandparents alone, manning a powerful sailing craft through some of the world's most dangerous waters.