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True Story of Love, Obsession and Shipwreck

Penguin Random House

Lots of people dream about leaving it all behind, but Maurice and Maralyn Bailey really did it. They bought a boat and set sail in June of 1972.

They’d been living on the ocean for a year when it happened. A breaching whale ran into their boat — and destroyed the vessel. Now adrift on a raft in the vast Pacific, the Bailey’s had little to live on. And if sharks and starvation didn’t make for enough suffering, there was also the matter of dealing with each other, and the cracks in their marriage that started splitting wider as they fought to survive. The writer Sophie Elmhirst tells the story in her new book, and she’s joining us to talk about what happens when a marriage is pushed to the furthest extremes possible.

GUEST –

Sophie Elmhirst | Journalist who writes for The Guardian , The Economist and others. Her book is called “A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession and Shipwreck.” [Amazon|Bookshop]

Airdate: Thurs. Aug., 28, 2025 at 9 a.m. and Sat. Aug., 30, 2025 at 11 a.m.

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