COLIN Souness from Innerleithen has published a book telling the story of how he and two friends, with no sailing experience between them, ventured on a treacherous voyage across the North Atlantic from the Arctic to Scotland

The 33-year old was studying his PHD in Glaciology at Wales' Aberystwyth University in 2010, when he volunteered to be part of a crew taking a boat that was being used in Greenland for glacial research back to Oban.

The book, Atlantic Gigantic, is about the three-week journey across the vast ocean in a 15-metre yacht, with the game plan: “We were just kind of figuring it out as we went along.”

When the student glaciologist first volunteered for the trip he didn't expect the rest of the crew to pull out. Something happened on the Arctic-based research trip which delayed his colleagues in making their return to Scotland.

But Colin didn't let that stop him:“I had only really sailed once before and was a complete novice. But, perhaps foolishly, I agreed to go ahead and sail anyway.

“Life's too short to turn down a good challenge, it's not every day you get the chance to test yourself against an ocean!”

Colin was given two additional, although equally inexperienced crew members to assist him, and the three novices embarked on their 2619 kilometre journey from Nuuk in western Greenland, across the unpredictable waters.

The plot builds to its climax with “a storm induced disaster” where the three lives on board depended on one man taking to the open sea in a rusty scuba suit which nobody knew how to operate, and another following behind equipped with nothing but a snorkel.

“In the few years which have elapsed since Matt, Sam and I completed our Atlantic odyssey I have recalled pieces and parts of the story to many people. Their reactions have ranged between amazement, mirth, awe, envy and, in a couple of cases, incompletely veiled contempt.”

“The latter were the ones who thought we were incomparably stupid to even have attempted such an undertaking given our collective lack of sailing experience. When the cards are all down, I can't avoid the fact that ultimately, these people are right. We were hideously inexperienced and all-round unprepared for the task of negotiating a North Atlantic crossing, particularly one in late September coming into October.”

Colin joked: “Anyway, we survived and arrived in Oban relatively unharmed. The only scars were psychological.”

The Atlantic Gigantic author graduated Peebles High School in 2000 and now works as a Glaciologist teaching people about the polar landscape in the Arctic and Antarctic on location for six months of the year. He has been back Innerleithen many times since to visit his mother and catch up with old friends. And, when we spoke to him, the local adventurer was about to embark on his latest great expedition... his first journey on the Borders railway to have a few pints in Galashiels.

Half of the book's proceeds will be donated to the Royal, National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) with whom Colin has done some work with since his own maiden voyage on the sea, and who's work he believes is invaluable.

He is also currently working on his second book about conservation around the world which he is heavily involved with, so watch this space.