Two in a Top Hat

In February 1974, Jan and Ian Mitchell, cruising novices, set off to circumnavigate the world in their Top Hat 25 foot yacht, Caprice. Many adventures later, they returned to Sydney in November 1977, with two-year-old Jamie (born in Durban, South Africa) and Jan pregnant with their second son. Four and a half months later, David was born.

Ian looked after the children while Jan wrote articles for yachting magazines. She also wrote the cover story for an August edition of Women’s Day. This book contains a compilation of those fourteen articles plus one from Ian about their shakedown voyage, published in Australian Sailing. Jan has added many more photographs of their trip and a history of the Top Hats.

The Mitchells write about seasickness, gales, learning to navigate, coping with strong currents, repairing a rigging failure at sea, friendships with others in the cruising community, the joys of tropical islands and more.

These articles were widely read in 1978 and inspired many would-be sailors to buy a boat. Some set out to sail the world. We hope their story will inspire you too.