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Shapes on the Wind
An uncompromising particpator in the varieties and vagaries of active life, David Lewis has ventured onto sea, land, and ice in every corner of the glove, investigating and testing the elements - and himself - for emtional and aesthetic potential.
- GenresNonfictionTravel
258 pages, Paperback
First published September 27, 2000
About the author
David Lewis
10 books3 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
David Henry Lewis, DCNZM (1917 - 23 October 2002) was a sailor, adventurer, doctor, and Polynesian scholar. He is best known for his studies on the traditional systems of navigation used by the Pacific Islanders. His studies, published in the book We, The Navigators, made these navigational methods known to a wide audience and helped to inspire a revival of traditional voyaging methods in the South Pacific.
David was born in Plymouth, England and raised in New Zealand and Rarotonga. He was sent to the Polynesian school in Rarotonga, where he apparently developed his appreciation for Polynesian identity and culture. He remained a New Zealander throughout his life, though he eventually retired to Queensland.
After an adventurous childhood and teenage years including mountaineering and skiing in New Zealand, and a multi-hundred mile kayak journey, he traveled to England in 1938 for medical training at the University of Leeds, and served in the British army as a medical officer. After the war, he worked as a doctor in London, and was involved in setting up the National Health Service.
Sailing
With the announcement in 1960 of the first single-handed trans-Atlantic yacht race (from Plymouth, UK to the US East Coast), Lewis decided to enter in a small 25-foot boat. Following a series of accidents, including a dismasting shortly after leaving, he finished third (Francis Chichester came first), as described in his book The Ship Would Not Travel Due West.
He later decided to sail around the world with his second wife and two small daughters, and built the ocean cruising catamaran Rehu Moana, for this purpose. After an initial voyage towards Greenland, he entered the 1964 single-handed trans-Atlantic race and picked up his family in the United States. They circumnavigated by way of the Strait of Magellan, the South Pacific and the Cape of Good Hope. (See his book Daughters of the Wind.) This was the world’s first circumnavigation by multihull.
Following his longstanding interest in old navigational methods used to explore and populate the Pacific, he employed similar techniques for the Tahiti-New Zealand leg of the Rehu Moana voyage without using a compass, sextant or marine chronometer.
Study and literary career
In 1967, Lewis acquired another boat, Isbjorn, to embark on further field studies of traditional Polynesian navigation. With a research grant from the Australian National University and with his second wife, two daughters and 19-year-old son, he set out for the Pacific again to study traditional navigation techniques. While there, he was welcomed into the cultures of various Pacific Islanders such as Hipour, who taught him their navigational lore, heretofore largely unrecognized by those outside Polynesia. Lewis chronicled this voyage and research in various articles and in his books We, the Navigators and The Voyaging Stars. Lewis’ voyages and resulting books gave inspiration to the revival in traditional Polynesian canoe building and voyaging, which was essentially extinct in many parts of the Pacific.
In 1976, Lewis joined Polynesian Voyaging Society's first experimental voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti on Hokule'a. But this voyage was marred by a clash of egos between David and the Hawaiian navigators. Nevertheless, the team successfully navigated using traditional methods to Tahiti. Lewis departed from Hokule'a in Tahiti and went on to work in his own research.
Along with Dr. Marianne (Mimi) George, he proposed that original Polynesian navigation is still alive in the Polynesian outlier Taumako.
Lewis’ next adventure in 1972 was an attempt at circumnavigating Antarctica single-handed. For this he acquired a small steel yacht, named Ice Bird. Facing treacherous conditions in the Southern Ocean after departing, Lewis was not heard from for 13 weeks but eventually managed to sail the Ice Bird to the Antarc
David Henry Lewis, DCNZM (1917 - 23 October 2002) was a sailor, adventurer, doctor, and Polynesian scholar. He is best known for his studies on the traditional systems of navigation used by the Pacific Islanders. His studies, published in the book We, The Navigators, made these navigational methods known to a wide audience and helped to inspire a revival of traditional voyaging methods in the South Pacific.
David was born in Plymouth, England and raised in New Zealand and Rarotonga. He was sent to the Polynesian school in Rarotonga, where he apparently developed his appreciation for Polynesian identity and culture. He remained a New Zealander throughout his life, though he eventually retired to Queensland.
After an adventurous childhood and teenage years including mountaineering and skiing in New Zealand, and a multi-hundred mile kayak journey, he traveled to England in 1938 for medical training at the University of Leeds, and served in the British army as a medical officer. After the war, he worked as a doctor in London, and was involved in setting up the National Health Service.
Sailing
With the announcement in 1960 of the first single-handed trans-Atlantic yacht race (from Plymouth, UK to the US East Coast), Lewis decided to enter in a small 25-foot boat. Following a series of accidents, including a dismasting shortly after leaving, he finished third (Francis Chichester came first), as described in his book The Ship Would Not Travel Due West.
He later decided to sail around the world with his second wife and two small daughters, and built the ocean cruising catamaran Rehu Moana, for this purpose. After an initial voyage towards Greenland, he entered the 1964 single-handed trans-Atlantic race and picked up his family in the United States. They circumnavigated by way of the Strait of Magellan, the South Pacific and the Cape of Good Hope. (See his book Daughters of the Wind.) This was the world’s first circumnavigation by multihull.
Following his longstanding interest in old navigational methods used to explore and populate the Pacific, he employed similar techniques for the Tahiti-New Zealand leg of the Rehu Moana voyage without using a compass, sextant or marine chronometer.
Study and literary career
In 1967, Lewis acquired another boat, Isbjorn, to embark on further field studies of traditional Polynesian navigation. With a research grant from the Australian National University and with his second wife, two daughters and 19-year-old son, he set out for the Pacific again to study traditional navigation techniques. While there, he was welcomed into the cultures of various Pacific Islanders such as Hipour, who taught him their navigational lore, heretofore largely unrecognized by those outside Polynesia. Lewis chronicled this voyage and research in various articles and in his books We, the Navigators and The Voyaging Stars. Lewis’ voyages and resulting books gave inspiration to the revival in traditional Polynesian canoe building and voyaging, which was essentially extinct in many parts of the Pacific.
In 1976, Lewis joined Polynesian Voyaging Society's first experimental voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti on Hokule'a. But this voyage was marred by a clash of egos between David and the Hawaiian navigators. Nevertheless, the team successfully navigated using traditional methods to Tahiti. Lewis departed from Hokule'a in Tahiti and went on to work in his own research.
Along with Dr. Marianne (Mimi) George, he proposed that original Polynesian navigation is still alive in the Polynesian outlier Taumako.
Lewis’ next adventure in 1972 was an attempt at circumnavigating Antarctica single-handed. For this he acquired a small steel yacht, named Ice Bird. Facing treacherous conditions in the Southern Ocean after departing, Lewis was not heard from for 13 weeks but eventually managed to sail the Ice Bird to the Antarc
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 10, 2022
This is the first of this authors books that I have read, and it is his autobiography - published just two years before his death at eighty five years old.
David Lewis was many things in his life - not least a doctor, a navigator and a sailor. He lived an incredibly varied life, scattering wives and women across the world (he was seldom without female accompaniment), but certainly played a role in the saving of the traditional Polynesian navigation techniques which had fallen from favour of the converted Christian peoples. In most Polynesian counties the church discouraged, if not banned the teaching of these methods as being backward.
David Lewis spent a long time travelling the Pacific, spending time and taking voyages with the old men, learning their ways. Thankfully, before it was too late the people once again began to teach their young men their traditional methods using the stars, the sun, the tides and the birds.
As well as his experience in traditional navigation, Lewis played a part in Antarctic history, making a number of voyages there in his life - the best known being in Ice Bird, when he made the first single-handed voyage to Antarctica in a yacht.
His voyages are too numerous to outline in a short review, there are chapter after chapter of them. He also spent time in the Arctic, living for a year in the north of Russia with the natives in Chukotka.
Throughout the whole book, Davis Lewis discusses frankly his philosophy of ageing. Perhaps not as gracefully as he thinks, he openly discusses his many relationships and marriages, and is quick to take the blame for their repeated failures. He certainly had an adventurous spirit, was overly ambitious and refused to give up in all but the most impossible situations.
It is a very entertaining read for a varied audience. There is a huge amount of sailing discussed, but there is no requirement to know even the basics to stay involved in the writing - it is probably the most non-technical sailing book I have read (I have next to no technical knowledge of sailing).
Four stars out of five for me.
David Lewis was many things in his life - not least a doctor, a navigator and a sailor. He lived an incredibly varied life, scattering wives and women across the world (he was seldom without female accompaniment), but certainly played a role in the saving of the traditional Polynesian navigation techniques which had fallen from favour of the converted Christian peoples. In most Polynesian counties the church discouraged, if not banned the teaching of these methods as being backward.
David Lewis spent a long time travelling the Pacific, spending time and taking voyages with the old men, learning their ways. Thankfully, before it was too late the people once again began to teach their young men their traditional methods using the stars, the sun, the tides and the birds.
As well as his experience in traditional navigation, Lewis played a part in Antarctic history, making a number of voyages there in his life - the best known being in Ice Bird, when he made the first single-handed voyage to Antarctica in a yacht.
His voyages are too numerous to outline in a short review, there are chapter after chapter of them. He also spent time in the Arctic, living for a year in the north of Russia with the natives in Chukotka.
Throughout the whole book, Davis Lewis discusses frankly his philosophy of ageing. Perhaps not as gracefully as he thinks, he openly discusses his many relationships and marriages, and is quick to take the blame for their repeated failures. He certainly had an adventurous spirit, was overly ambitious and refused to give up in all but the most impossible situations.
It is a very entertaining read for a varied audience. There is a huge amount of sailing discussed, but there is no requirement to know even the basics to stay involved in the writing - it is probably the most non-technical sailing book I have read (I have next to no technical knowledge of sailing).
Four stars out of five for me.
October 26, 2021
Beautifully written and an amazing life – but I'm biased; I was the editor of this book. David was one of a kind. RIP.
October 31, 2014
All about sailing with some mountain climbing thrown in. This autobiographical account is filled with adventures.
January 24, 2026
Lewis is an extraordinary man in personality, exploits navigating the ocean, relentless energy and in this autobiography the frank way he tells the story of his life. From an early age he was pushing boundaries in a life focused on alpine climbing and voyages by yacht incorporating research. Reading his books about these trips is a treat for the armchair sailor adventurer but always leaves you a little short on the full picture of the man. This book links all of those adventures and adds in the colour of his personal life during and between times. He is flawed, as a lot of high achievers are and he touches on this.
A remarkable story on a remarkable man.
A remarkable story on a remarkable man.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews