Ewan Marshbanks' stellar career as nomadic journalist ends in divorce, prostate cancer and his newspaper's demise. He flies to Florida where he meets Tad Wainwright, delivery skipper of a luxury yacht bound for the America'sCup in Auckland. Would he join the crew as interpreter and first mate? Carpe diem old man, says the jaded soul. But skipper and vessel have irksome habits: sexual dalliances...a delinquent engine. In Jamaica, Tad falls for a voluptuous mulatto beauty with blue eyes and delays their departure. Enter Lavinia, the 79-year-old owner's wife, who sacks Tad and hires a new captain. They sail for theGalapagos where backpacker Pierre - newly recruited in Panama - tours the bordellos and falls for a hooker.They encounter giant whales and vast dolphin migrations in the heaving swells of the Pacific. On night watch, Ewan drifts into periods of introspection in a quest for spiritual rebirth. A few days later - mysteriously - Lavinia vanishes.A French air force Atlantique helps the search. Ewan suspects murder...