Below the Horizon opens as Mike Dugan and his crew sail under the Golden Gate Bridge and "turn left," bound for grandeur. Armed with little more than a theoretical knowledge of sailing, some homemade wine, and ignorant optimism, what ensues is a combination of hilarity and tragedy as the crew of Hanuman embark on "the biggest adventure I could think of; within the boundaries of time and space of course." Towering gray waves and a wind ravaged sea threaten to end the journey before it begins but Mike presses on only to finds his way into the fly infested, shit stained bowels of a Mexican jail occupied by a transsexual prostitute and a sadistic jailor. Salt and sweat penetrate the narrative as story book ideals are morphed into lessons hard won through continual folly.