ISLAND PEOPLE

Danielson’s memoir recounts a cross-Atlantic sailing adventure.

In this follow-up to Island People: Finding Our Way (2020), in which the author recalled he and his wife Julie’s joining the Peace Corps, teaching in Central Africa, and learning to sail, Danielson turns his attention to their lives after retirement. The book opens with the couple mooring their boat, a Nauticat 35 named Tapestry, in the British Virgin Islands, having sailed from their home in Englewood, Florida. It was here that Danielson learned of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers and decided to join the flotilla on their race across the Atlantic. With two friends as additional crewmembers, they made preparations and headed to Antigua for the start of the ARC, by way of Martinique, St. Eustatius, and St. Martin. Drawing on poetry that he wrote about the voyage, as well as email correspondence and diary entries, Danielson laconically describes the beauty of the crossing (“we had a magnificent clear sunset with a crescent moon at about the zenith”) and attempts to outrun turbulent weather: “During the storm, the winds rose to about 40 knots and gusted to about 47. That is a full gale.” After stopping off in the Azores for race presentations, the crew went on to sail to the south coast of England before heading to the Mediterranean; there, they explored the Spanish coastline, Balearic, and Morocco, among many other locations. The remainder of the memoir describes the Danielsons’ subsequent sailing trips in Italy, Greece, and the Middle East.

The author’s journey is inspirational as a treatise on perseverance. Before the trip, Julie was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, and she later experienced recurrences of breast cancer. However, Danielson radiates a positive, seize-the-day attitude throughout the book: “Of course, this was not a reason to change our plans. Quite the contrary, it served as a reminder that every day in our lives is precious.” The crew encounters many interesting phenomena during the voyage, such as a Portuguese man-of-war. The descriptions of these events, though, are often dryly encyclopedic in tone: “They are jellyfish prevalent in the Atlantic on the East coast of Florida. They are often iridescent blue, but have filaments, which give a painful sting to swimmers." Danielson’s poetry is jovial but leans toward clichés rather than providing evocative imagery: “The wind was light and lazy, / At the start, it drove us crazy.” Some depictions of people feel problematically reductive, such as islanders described only as “black men” with “bright white teeth.” There’s also an abundance of boat-speak, which may prove appealing to fellow sailors but deter curious laypeople: “I directed Ed’s attention to the Link 10 charge meter. After the MC 160 had warmed up for a minute or so, we watched the amps begin to climb.” The book is illustrated with maps, uncredited photography,and Julie’s rudimentary but charming paintings. Overall, this is a fine personal record of an intrepid journey, but it lacks the descriptive power to make readers feel as if they’re truly along for the ride.

A sometimes-inspiring but sparsely detailed remembrance.