I've been on a sailboat maybe three times in my life. While I loved the experience for a day or two, the idea of sailing across wide expanses of ocean for weeks, months, or even years at a time is something that I struggle to comprehend. And sailing alone? That's wild in my eyes. I was fascinated to read about the journeys of brave men and women who sailed across our oceans in Richard J. King's Sailing Alone: A Surprising History of Isolation and Survival at Sea.
King crossed the Atlantic by himself. The book intersperses his journey with those of others, exploring their stories and reasons for sailing, each unique in their own right. King offers a very detailed discussion of solitary crossings, as well as the advances of technology and how it has helped (or not helped). He also explores what individuals did while dealing with long stretches of solitude.
Sailing Alone is an authentic, humorous, and educational collection of stories that I thoroughly enjoyed.
MY RATING: 5
