Author and adventurer Sandy Mackinnon can hold an audience, and did just that within minutes at The Wine List in Euroa on Thursday 20 August. Over 50 people squeezed into the Binney Street venue to hear the Mansfield schoolteacher, actor, raconteur, and thorough gentleman 're-launch' Realms of Gold, the story of his latest improbable voyage in an eleven-foot yellow Mirror dinghy. For over an hour the crowd laughed, winced, and occasionally shook their heads in disbelief as Mackinnon recounted sailing from the Black Sea in Romania to Venice in a boat many Australians would recognise from their childhood sailing lessons. The remarkable thing is that this was his second such adventure. His first book, The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow, told the story of travelling from North Wales to the Black Sea through Europe's rivers and canals in an identical dinghy. The latest book takes up the story from there and heads into the Mediterranean. Yet Mackinnon insists adventure itself has never been the point. "The thing that's always motivated me in adventurous travels like that has never been that type of gung-ho, 'I'm going to conquer this' sort of thing," he told the audience. "It always goes back to that love of stories, and love of children's books." He spoke of growing up on tales such as Doctor Dolittle, The Hobbit, Huckleberry Finn, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, books that convinced him from an early age that remarkable journeys were possible. "I always thought, really? You could just sail away into exotic places?" he said. For Mackinnon, the voyage became a way of stepping into those stories. The result was a journey that alternated between wonder, comedy, and genuine danger. One of his proudest moments came when he deliberately beached the dinghy near the ancient ruins of Troy and walked inland to stand among the remains of the legendary city. "I remember standing under an old fig tree amongst stone walls thousands of years old and thinking, with perhaps a little self-consciousness, I'm standing where Odysseus stood," he said. "And I'm going to get to Ithaca, his home island, in a boat that's even less equipped than his." Unlike the first voyage, where rivers constantly brought him into contact with locals, the Mediterranean journey became more of a battle with the sea itself. "The stories in this one are more about the perils of the sea, gear breakages, capsizing and being swept onto rocks," he said. Yet even the bureaucracy became part of the adventure, leading to one of his most hilarious encounters. Repeatedly challenged by harbour masters demanding "ships' papers" (whom he impersonated with various accents, confessing he could not do a Greek one) for a vessel barely bigger than a bathtub, Mackinnon eventually resorted to creating his own. Armed with paper, pen and calligraphy kit, he produced an elaborate certificate for his vessel Jack de Crow, complete with decorative flourishes and a cargo list that included "rainbows, gossamer, magic tricks, and daydreams". When the Bulgarian harbour official inspected it, Mackinnon expected trouble. Instead, the official studied the document and offered a suggestion. "Very good," he reportedly said. "But you must have a little mermaid in this corner." The anecdote brought one of many peals of laughter from the audience. There were encounters with customs officials convinced he should fly home, arguments over passport stamps, and a Greek bureaucrat who informed him his only options were to abandon the voyage or leave Greek waters entirely. Thursday’s audience quickly discovered that Mackinnon's greatest gift was not sailing, but storytelling. Each story was delivered with the perfect timing of a teacher and theatre performer, roles familiar to many who know him through Geelong Grammar School's Timbertop campus and, for this correspondent, his earlier stage days with Adelaide’s Independent Theatre and at Pulteney Grammar School. Asked whether he had experienced hallucinations, Mackinnon instead described seeing a distant double-peaked mountain emerge from clearing storm clouds and realising he was looking at Mt Olympus. He also admitted to navigating much of the Mediterranean using a phone app that seemed to identify mythical locations instead of modern ports, locating caves of nymphs, ancient temples, and sites from Greek mythology instead of harbours and safe anchorages. "I think it was set permanently on adventure mode," he joked. The voyage did involve genuine risk, with Mackinnon describing capsizing the boat near a rocky sea cave and struggling to right the dinghy just in time to avoid danger. From ancient ruins, tough sailing conditions, arguing with customs, and even sailing in a flotilla of Greek Mirror dinghy enthusiasts who had tracked him down online, he remained less interested in conquering the world than experiencing it. Stories are what appear to matter most to Sandy Mackinnon, and by evening’s end, the audience felt they had been a part of his. The event was organised by the Friends of the Euroa Library, who also run the Already Read Bookshop. Realms of Gold published by Black Ink Books.
