Thanks for the apology above: yes, Arthur Ransome and Patrick O'Brian are two of my favourite non-sff authors. And, yes, I probably forgive you for not liking them.... :-) Though I have to say my favourite Ransome is probably Pigeon Post, followed quickly by Winter Holiday -- and you will not know, because you haven't read them, but there is not a boat in either of them. Bu I do admit there is something of the romance of the sea in me (and obviously not in you): but perhaps that is actually the romance of exploration. That's more obvious in O'Brian, where, travelling as precursors of the Beagle, Stephen Maturin is constantly discovering new planets, so to speak, in remote parts of our own planet. I think I like O'Brian for some of the same reasons that I like science fiction. Ships, spaceships, they both take you to new places. The water bit is irrelevant.