Changing Tides

"Murder? No don't go there. "Suicide?" Alice knew her husband was too weak for that. Tumbled overboard in a drunken stupor?" More likely. The opening lines of Changing Tides, a romance/adventure set in Sydney in the 1930s. The heroine, refined Alice Bowdin, stands at the rail of a sailing ship in the English Channel. The story moves from the English Channel to a Harbour side Sydney apartment a few months earlier. A pre-race party is in full swing the night before the 1937 Melbourne Cup. Alice's surgeon husband Jim, pins all his hopes on his horse Sir Regent winning the Cup. The hores fails. Jim is devastated and plunges into even heavier drinking. Things deteriorate. Alice plans for Jim to work in England to save the marriage. The two leave Sydney. On the way to England, they miss the P & O liner 'Stratheden' in Adelaide. Alice books berths aboard The Winterhude a windjammer sailing from Port Germain in South Australia carrying grain. Victor Roder is the ship's Captain. Jim becomes ship's doctorand looks forward to a flirtation with Julia the Captain's niece. First mate catches Jim stealing from the rum store. Alice falls in love with Victor. The Winterhude collides with a French ship. Jim disappears. The novel's background is of a sea captain struggling against the cruel sea in order to get his cargo from Australia to England.