
Eighteen-year-old Londoner Josh feels all at sea, holidaying with his family on the Isle of Wight. He’d rather be living it up in Ibiza, dancing until all hours, and maybe finding out what it’s like to be with another man. What chance does he have of getting lucky with his newly-single mum and little sisters in tow?
Cambridge student Rupe is making the most of his summer job at the boating lake, charming customers with his good looks and theatrical manner. Life looks even sunnier when he meets the cute, inexperienced Josh and asks him out for a date on a boat. But there are dark clouds in Rupe’s life, and even love on an island isn’t always plain sailing.

All at Sea By JL Merrow I knew before we got there it was going to be the worst holiday of my life. It was 1993 and I was eighteen years old, having just left school. I wasn’t bad looking—maybe a little on the skinny side, but hey, I’d been taking exams. I hadn’t had time to do a lot of push-ups and stuff. Anyway, skinny was in back then. Come to think of it, skinny’s always in. Anyway, I didn’t have a face full of zits, and I knew where to get a decent haircut and how to dress cool on sod all money. I should have been living it up in Ibiza, drinking all night and sleeping it off on the beach all day. Not building sandcastles with my little sisters on the Isle of Bloody Wight. But I couldn’t have left Mum on her own with them. She was still reeling from finding out Dad had been having
