INTO OBLIVION
In October 2017 Jerome Rand set sail single-handed from Gloucester, Massachusetts, in Mighty Sparrow. In June 2018 he cruised right back again, having circumnavigated the globe via the great Southern Ocean capes in his 43-year-old long-keeled, heavy displacement Westsail 32. In today’s climate of great fanfare and buckets-full of sponsorship money, it’s refreshing to read about a determined young man who will have nothing to do with any of this. Without access to any serious funds, he pays for his own adventure like a gentleman, then goes ahead and writes a book about it that is hard to put down. Beginning to read Sailing into Oblivion, there is an absolute minimum of preamble, soul-searching and description of what went before. He simply announces his intentions and gets on with it.
Rand’s frank description of the ups and downs of this truly great voyage is a treat. The way he sets aside what must have been heavy temptation to anchor and sort things out in New Zealand or, perhaps, the Falkland Islands, is an inspiration to anyone who, like me, has a history of succumbing to what seems at the time like common sense. Oh, and by the way, despite lack of support from any bank account but his own, Jerome succeeds in becoming the first solo American to
