Passage to Greenland

ver since I read Joshua Slocum’s at an early age, I’ve had a hearty appetite for tales by those who go down to the sea in ships. But if it takes skill to sail a boat, it also requires a certain adroitness to write a book about it. Seasoned yachting journalist Rebecca Hayter knows exactly how to chart a course for the armchair sailor. WILD. In the 1950s, Adrian Hayter sailed solo around the world in an age before satellite navigation and modern technology. The human face of the Rosemary’s voyage dominates the book, but despite all the pages of high adventure, there are times when the language tosses the non-sailing reader overboard. A passage such as “I furled in the little genoa, loaded up what would be the new main-sheet winch and removed all the winch handles on the windward side” tends to become a navigational hazard in what is otherwise an enjoyably full-blooded tale.