Sailing Alone

Sailing Alone

A History

Summary

'An exceptional book. Sailing Alone belongs on the very small shelf of the true classics of the sea' Peter Nichols, author of Sea Change and A Voyage for Madmen

'Colourful and inventive' The Times


Sailing on a boat by yourself out at sea and out of sight of land can be exhilarating or terrifying, compelling or tedious - sometimes it can be all of these things just in one morning. It is an adventure at odds with our normal, sociable lives, carried out floating on a medium wholly inimical to our existence. But the deep ocean is also a remarkable place on which to think.

Richard King's enormously engaging and curious new book is about the debt we owe to solo sailors: women and men, young and old, who have set out alone. Spending weeks and months alone, slowly, quietly and close to the ocean surface is to create the world's largest laboratory: an endlessly changing, capricious and startling place in which to observe oneself, the weather, the stars and myriad sea creatures, from the tiniest to the most massive and threatening.

This is a book for anyone who is fascinated by sailing, solitude and the vast seas that cover so much of our planet.

Reviews

  • Sailing alone is a dream that goes from a magical to a mystical atmosphere, depending on who you are. For those who have done it, it’s an extreme experience, sometimes indescribable. Writers may find the words to share it and help to understand why and how we embark on the adventure. Richard King is one of those writers: follow him, you will know
    Isabelle Autissier

About the author

Richard J. King

Richard J. King is a visiting associate professor in Maritime History and Literature with the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He has been sailing on ships throughout the Atlantic and Pacific for twenty-five years and in 2007 sailed across the Atlantic alone in a 28-foot sailboat. He is the author of Ahab's Rolling Sea: A Natural History of Moby-Dick, The Devil's Cormorant: A Natural History, Lobster, Meeting Tom Brady and co-editor of the anthology Audubon at Sea: The Coastal and Trans-Atlantic Writings of John James Audubon.
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