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Sailing To Purgatory
The final voyage, a singlehander's farewell to the sea, began well. The yacht was strong and fast, his ocean-going experience vast. With Mark Twain's advice in mind, Sail away ... Explore. Dream. Discover, 8,000 miles of adventure lay ahead.
And there was plenty - facing scary storms, pausing on an island of lust, being detained by aggressive lawmen, rediscovering intense mid-ocean alienation, falling in love, being poised over an oceanic garden of Eden.
Finally the swallowing-the-anchor journey reached home. A sort of heaven with retirement, marriage and peace its promise. In reality it was Purgatory, offering ambush, injustice, and imprisonment...
And there was plenty - facing scary storms, pausing on an island of lust, being detained by aggressive lawmen, rediscovering intense mid-ocean alienation, falling in love, being poised over an oceanic garden of Eden.
Finally the swallowing-the-anchor journey reached home. A sort of heaven with retirement, marriage and peace its promise. In reality it was Purgatory, offering ambush, injustice, and imprisonment...
279 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 22, 2017
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 1, 2017
Going to sea in a yacht is not for sissies!
Paul Rodgers realises that he’s almost past the age of being able to sail around the world on his own. He decides to give it one last try and so begins his epic journey from Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, via many of the Caribbean Islands, dashing to the safety of St Helena before reaching Cape Town many months later.
I’m not even remotely interested in sailing; however, Paul has managed to keep even my interest and curiosity alive while describing the storms that he encountered, the winds that blew him off course, the people he met and even a late-blooming romance with almost poetic descriptions. Some of my favourite parts of the book are his descriptions of the bird life that seem to drop in from nowhere to share his journey. It’s these passages of beautiful text that deserve the four stars. Possibly, if I enjoyed sailing, the descriptions of the storms, struggling to keep the boat upright and his attitude to “carry on regardless” would have stirred something inside me. Instead, being a “landlubber” and only keen to get into the sea to waist height, I’m afraid that all this did was convince me that staying on land or only going to the sea in a huge ship, would get me to venture further than the edge of a beach.
The book’s final chapter only vaguely deals with the fact that on his return to the UK he was arrested and sent to prison along with several other members of the gang he was supposedly part of (he says he was completely innocent) bringing drugs into the country via small vessels. The drug bust which led to his arrest is still one of the biggest hauls of drugs ever seized in the UK with a street value of millions of pounds. This final chapter had my eyes coming out on stalks while asking myself, “Was there something I missed while reading this book?” Because what I saw through his creative and descriptive writing were the storms lashing the boat with waves so high that they seem to blot out the sun. With winds so strong that it felt as if they could lift the boat and chuck it into the air, why, therefore, would you risk all this in the latter stages of your life to lose your freedom?
Bluebell
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
Paul Rodgers realises that he’s almost past the age of being able to sail around the world on his own. He decides to give it one last try and so begins his epic journey from Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, via many of the Caribbean Islands, dashing to the safety of St Helena before reaching Cape Town many months later.
I’m not even remotely interested in sailing; however, Paul has managed to keep even my interest and curiosity alive while describing the storms that he encountered, the winds that blew him off course, the people he met and even a late-blooming romance with almost poetic descriptions. Some of my favourite parts of the book are his descriptions of the bird life that seem to drop in from nowhere to share his journey. It’s these passages of beautiful text that deserve the four stars. Possibly, if I enjoyed sailing, the descriptions of the storms, struggling to keep the boat upright and his attitude to “carry on regardless” would have stirred something inside me. Instead, being a “landlubber” and only keen to get into the sea to waist height, I’m afraid that all this did was convince me that staying on land or only going to the sea in a huge ship, would get me to venture further than the edge of a beach.
The book’s final chapter only vaguely deals with the fact that on his return to the UK he was arrested and sent to prison along with several other members of the gang he was supposedly part of (he says he was completely innocent) bringing drugs into the country via small vessels. The drug bust which led to his arrest is still one of the biggest hauls of drugs ever seized in the UK with a street value of millions of pounds. This final chapter had my eyes coming out on stalks while asking myself, “Was there something I missed while reading this book?” Because what I saw through his creative and descriptive writing were the storms lashing the boat with waves so high that they seem to blot out the sun. With winds so strong that it felt as if they could lift the boat and chuck it into the air, why, therefore, would you risk all this in the latter stages of your life to lose your freedom?
Bluebell
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
Displaying 1 of 1 review