A practical, accessible, and fun guide to planning the sailing adventure of a lifetime.
A debut book provides a practical sailing guide to world circumnavigation.
This is the volume that the authors wished they had before setting off on their around-the-world sailing adventure. It is, in essence, a way of inspiring and preparing other sailors to make a journey that many would consider overly daunting. The approach is positive from the outset, so much so that exclamation points litter the text: “Natural beauty is everywhere!” “Wildlife is outstanding!” “The Adventure of a Lifetime!” This is a motivational piece of writing that oozes enthusiasm throughout. But it also wastes no time in tackling the realities of an around-the-world trip in comparison to that of a “day sail on the bay”: rougher conditions, longer passages, and forays at night and farther from shore, among other new challenges. The opening eight pages offer a useful to-do list that covers selecting a route; honing certain skills, such as anchoring technique and electronic seamanship; organizing food and provisioning; and deciding whether to join a cruising rally. This is solid, avuncular advice, set out in a clear, accessible manner. The guide then offers a breakdown of the major ports of call, including detailed maps and color photography. The authors capture a vivid sense of each location with sections on shoreside services, things to do, expected conditions, and valuable nuggets of information that could prove lifesaving, such as “Beware of the risk of saltwater crocodiles (‘sal-ties’), which frequently attack and kill people swimming within their territory. Heed the warnings, and don’t swim in near-shore waters.” The remainder of the guide provides an itinerary sample and discusses choosing a route, navigating by Google Maps, understanding the dangers of piracy, and setting crew expectations. It finishes with suggested cruising guides and charts. The authors employ a buoyant and friendly writing style, often bordering on folksy: “As you can see, the enormous variety of experiences, the breathtaking vistas, and the wonder of wildlife keep us cruising.” This, however, does not mean that the prose should not be taken seriously, as it remains characterful, comprehensive, and professional. Holding the power to excite and inform, this densely packed and colorful book should prove inspirational for anyone with an interest in sailing and world travel.
A practical, accessible, and fun guide to planning the sailing adventure of a lifetime.Pub Date: May 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5304-9197-1
Page Count: 172
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.
A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.
For Bay Area writer Tsui (American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average. For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61620-786-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
While the author may attempt to mirror this ideal, the result is less than satisfying and more than a little irritating.
A disjointed debut memoir about how competitive swimming shaped the personal and artistic sensibilities of a respected illustrator.
Through a series of vignettes, paintings and photographs that often have no sequential relationship to each other, Shapton (The Native Trees of Canada, 2010, etc.) depicts her intense relationship to all aspects of swimming: pools, water, races and even bathing suits. The author trained competitively throughout her adolescence, yet however much she loved racing, “the idea of fastest, of number one, of the Olympics, didn’t motivate me.” In 1988 and again in 1992, she qualified for the Olympic trials but never went further. Soon afterward, Shapton gave up competition, but she never quite ended her relationship to swimming. Almost 20 years later, she writes, “I dream about swimming at least three nights a week.” Her recollections are equally saturated with stories that somehow involve the act of swimming. When she speaks of her family, it is less in terms of who they are as individuals and more in context of how they were involved in her life as a competitive swimmer. When she describes her adult life—which she often reveals in disconnected fragments—it is in ways that sometimes seem totally random. If she remembers the day before her wedding, for example, it is because she couldn't find a bathing suit to wear in her hotel pool. Her watery obsession also defines her view of her chosen profession, art. At one point, Shapton recalls a documentary about Olympian Michael Phelps and draws the parallel that art, like great athleticism, is as “serene in aspect” as it is “incomprehensible.”
While the author may attempt to mirror this ideal, the result is less than satisfying and more than a little irritating.Pub Date: July 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-399-15817-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Blue Rider Press
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
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