Gamebook regrouping: "Seas of Blood" by Andrew Chapman (Fighting Fantasy 16)

This is a spoiler-free recap of how I feel I'm going with Andrew Chapman's Seas of Blood.  The book beat me on five attempts (if you don't mind the spoilers, you can read my summaries of attempt 1, attempts 2 & 3, and attempts 4 & 5) before I decided to take a break to let my memory get foggy and extend the experience.

Gamebook playthrough: "Seas of Blood" by Andrew Chapman, attempts 4 & 5

Andrew Chapman's Seas of Blood killed me on the first try.  That's what should happen with a gamebook.  It also defeated me on outings two and three, in a healthy display of replayability.  Right now, I'm hoping to bring it down within ten attempts.  As always with gamebook playthroughs, Beware of The Spoilers from this point on.

Gamebook playthrough: "Seas of Blood" by Andrew Chapman, attempts 2 and 3

After falling well short of beating Seas of Blood yesterday, I'm going to take another swing and try to get a little further.  This is 80s-style re-playability, where the thing is hard enough that it takes several attempts to get through.  If you enjoy that sort of thing, be warned: there are spoilers ahead.

Gamebook playthrough: "Seas of Blood" by Andrew Chapman, attempt 1

My flatmate has a fantastic collection of gamebooks, many of which I remember owning and playing as a child.  I thought it would be fun to play through a few of them to see if I was actually any good at these as a kid, or whether I just cheated my way to the end!  Today I'm having a crack at Andrew Chapman's swashbuckling, throat-cutting Seas of Blood, a part of the "Fighting Fantasy" line published in 1985.  I think I last played this book in the mid-90s.  Note that this playthrough contains significant spoilers for the gamebook.