Book Review: The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst

It's an incredible story. Donald Crowhurst entered the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe race, which was the first organized race for a single handed nonstop circumnavigation. Crowhurst was an amateur sailor with very little or no blue water experience. He was smart and ambitious, but he found success elusive in his life, and would quickly jump from one failing career or project to another. He embarked on the circumnavigation unprepared with an un-seaworthy and largely untested trimaran that he had commissioned. Crowhurst realizes his mistake, possibly even before leaving, but once at sea he knows the boat won't make it through the southern oceans in one piece. He stays in the South Atlantic, planning to fake the circumnavigation. As the fleet rounds the world back to the Atlantic and starts heading North, he rejoins the race and is on pace to set the fastest time. Within a day of landfall, Crowhurst stops. His boat is found drifting, without damage, and the log books set neatly on the settee table. The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst chronicles Crowhurst's early life, and through extensive interviews with family, friends, and business partners a picture of Crowhurst develops that belies his public persona.

The authors do an amazing job deciphering and interpreting the logs that were left behind. There was a movie made in 2006 on the same topic, Deep Water, which was interesting, but failed to put all of the pieces together the way the book did.

Book Review: Return To The Sea

After reading Webb Chiles' A Single Wave I was left wondering why he sank his last boat Resurgam. Return To The Sea was his latest book, following A Single Wave, and I thought it might have an explanation as to why he sank Resurgam, unfortunately it did not. Return To The Sea records the completion of his fourth circumnavigation. Chiles is growing old, he admits living much longer than he had expected. He doesn't seem to be in search of challenge and adventure like he used to be. Instead heading out to the open sea is like returning to the comfort of home for him. While I really liked A Single Wave, Return To The Sea was a bit dull. He does make some interesting observations about life and different cultures. It wasn't a bad book, but I felt a little let down after no explanation was given for his intentional sinking of Resurgram.

Book Review: A Single Wave

I saw a post on SailNet that linked to Webb Chiles website where he has some articles about his sailing experiences. I read a couple of them and was hooked. I ordered one of his books, A Single Wave, Stories of Storms and Survival from Amazon. He recounts a number of his experiences with storms while sailing everything from an 18 foot open boat to 30 foot cruisers during numerous circumnavigations. Chiles sees himself as an artist, whose medium is the wind. He often repeats that his goal is to maximize the intensity of his life, instead of it's duration. Personally, the guy seems kind of suicidal, but it makes for some good stories.