Before embarking on his nautical retirement aboard UNLIKELY VII, American Reese Palley had a successful career as an art dealer. No doubt he can spot a masterpiece and a fake at 50 pages. But for judging the panoply of humanity he reckons you can't beat the perspective of sailing across oceans, as he's done for 30 years, when he's not ashore living in Philadelphia.He's met fools and philosophers, devils and saints and they're all in this book under chapter headings like Funny People, Good People, Off the Wall People and Tragic People. The legendary Tristan Jones appears, of course, under Incredible People. But for most of them fame lies only in having crossed wakes with Palley. There's the lunatic from Colombia and the world's dumbest sailor. This book is a delightfully luck-dip of brief encounters, sometimes humorous, always unlikely.