The Book I Wrote at Sea

I've been hiding something.

For a long time now, I've been quietly working on something I haven't told many people about. Today I can finally say it out loud: I wrote a novel. It's called A Sea Without Witnesses, and it's out now in hardcover.

But to explain how that happened, I have to go back to a cold winter on a very small boat.

A winter aboard, with no idea what I was doing

A few years ago, I moved onto a tiny racing sailboat and lived on it through an entire New Zealand winter. I had no sailing experience. I couldn't even swim.

There was no headroom, just basic camping gear and a lot of cold nights. I learned to cook hunched over, to sleep through rain drumming on the deck, and to listen to every creak and knock the boat made in the dark. Every small thing I learned came the hard way, and every one of them felt like a win.

What I didn't expect was the people. The sailing community took me in. Neighbours on other boats, marina regulars and experienced sailors gave me their time, their advice and their patience. They taught me more than I could ever thank them for, and a lot of who I am today comes from them.

From a racing boat to 37 feet, and then back to land

Eventually I upgraded to a 37ft sailboat. After the little racing boat, she felt enormous.

Then I made one of the hardest decisions I've made so far: I sold her and came back ashore to focus on my airline pilot training. The plan is simple. Fly, save up a proper cruising kitty, and one day sail around the world the right way.

Leaving the water wasn't easy. But I took something with me.

Where the book came from

Somewhere in all those night watches and quiet anchorages, I started writing.

When you live on a boat, you spend a lot of time alone with your thoughts: on watch in the early hours, anchored in a silent bay, listening to the wind decide what kind of night it's going to be. Out there, I started wondering what it would be like to carry something you couldn't tell anyone. What would it feel like to sail across an ocean trying to outrun something you'd done?

That question became A Sea Without Witnesses.

What the book is about

When his father's launch is found drifting empty in the Bay of Islands, Elias Rook inherits four million dollars and a story that almost holds. Within weeks he has bought an ocean-going yacht and sailed alone for the horizon, carrying a locked steel box he can't bring himself to throw into the sea.

In Fiji he takes on Mara Voss, a marine scientist who measures everything and accepts nothing on trust. Across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, love grows between them in the small space of a boat, while an insurance investigator in Auckland pieces together what really happened that night.

It's a thriller about guilt, love, and the truth we try to leave in our wake.

Writing what I know

The sailing in this book comes from real experience: the cold, the exhaustion of long watches, the way a boat sounds at night, the nerves before weather arrives, and the relief of seeing land after days of nothing but water. I wanted anyone who has spent time on a boat to recognise it, and anyone who hasn't to feel like they were there.

The crime, thankfully, is fiction.

What's next

For now: flying, saving, and dreaming about the day I sail out past the heads on my own boat again. And maybe, somewhere out there, there's another story waiting.

If you've followed my journey from Trashman to now, thank you. Your support is the reason I had the confidence to share this.

Get the book

A Sea Without Witnesses is available now in hardcover.

Get your copy here: A Sea Without Witnesses

If you read it, I'd love to hear what you think. Leave a review, or send me a message on Instagram at @trashmancrew.