I picked this book up with great expectations but put it back down again with some disappointment. Griff Rhys Jones is a great comedian and I've been a fan of him from "Not the Nine O'Clock News" and "Alas Smith and Jones" for ages, so I expected some great humour in between the pages of "To the Baltic with Bob".

What we got was a book that gave me the odd smile but mainly rambled about the author's history of sailing, a description of his yacht, his shock at the high cost of marine maps, the quality of the showers at the sailing club in St Petersburg and the fact he was paying his friends to come sailing with him.

The highlights actually came with references to Rhys Jones's son George, now a young man but about whom I remembered a reference to him as a baby in "Alas Smith and Jones", and Rhys Jones' mentions of his old partner in laughs, the late, great Mel Smith. Still, "To the Baltic with Bob" was a pleasant enough way to pass the time that I probably would have wasted anyway. ( )

Droll account of a six-month voyage with two friends on a sail boat. Fractious and self-deprecating, Rhys Jones is not interested in the jollity of the journey even though he sees the absurdity of the crew's struggles with the Baltic. ( )

Bought 03 Nov 2007 - charity shop

A lovely, funny, slightly morose narrative of Jones' various journeys around the Baltic with friends Bob and Baines. Particularly appealing was the fact that the boat he goes on is the Undina, which recently features on the excellent TV programme "Three Men On Another Boat" - so even though there was a rather annoying lack of pictures, or even a boat diagram, I could visualise her quite well.

It's a charming book - I do like a sailing book, and this is one of the better ones. I'll keep it - Matth3w wants a go with it too, so off it goes onto his ginormous TBR.

Turgid. I mean, I guess the Baltic is a hard place to love, but Jones brings little delight to it. And, to quote Chubby Brown, who the f*** is Bob? I could see the point if he was some amazing character, cracking witticisms, shagging women and drinking the Baltic dry during Hell raising ventures ashore. But no. He remained a grey persona, un-illuminated through observation or description, and I wondered what was the bloody point of it all. Griff and Bob were about as interesting as a week in the Baltic, frankly. ( )

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2005/05/41-to-baltic-with-bob-griff-rhys-jones.htm... ( )