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Blue Horizons: Dispatches from Distant Seas
Winner Of The National Outdoor Book Award For Literature When Beth Leonard and her partner, Evans Starzinger, returned from a three-year, 35,000 mile circumnavigation, they thought they were done with offshore voyaging. But neither realized how irrevocably they had been changed by their experience, nor how irresistible the siren song of the sea would prove. In comparison, life ashore seemed dull and monochrome, and within months, Beth knew she had to go back to sea in order to remain true to the person she had become. Four years later they set out on their 47-foot aluminum sloop "Hawk" for a journey that lasted six years and took them more than 50,000 miles. They voyaged to Newfoundland, Iceland, Norway, the Caribbean, Ireland, Scotland, Cape Horn, New Zealand, the South Pacific, British Columbia--to the ends of the earth and back. "Blue Horizons" is Beth Leonard's record of that journey. Compiled from her popular columns in "Blue Water Sailing" magazine, which she wrote along the way, "Blue Horizons" is more than an adventure saga, more than the log of an extended passage. As in all great travel writing, it's the product of an insatiable hunger to explore the world, and in so doing to explore one's own soul. It is, says Beth, "about pulling your dreams over the horizon to you, one sail change, one course correction at a time." But this is no dreamer's tale. Beth Leonard is both sailor and writer, well qualified to deal with and describe blue water voyaging. Her observations are as sharp as salt air and her prose as informed as it is insightful and entertaining. Beth also brings to "Blue Horizons" a uniquely feminine perspective, a combination of empathy, charm, and lyric grace. Her pages are suffused with emotion and a strong sense of immediacy. You're with Beth and Evans as "Hawk" pokes into a lonely and deserted outport on Newfoundland's barren northeast coast, and as they await hurricane Lenny in Antigua. And you sympathize as she burrows deep into her tilting berth, seeking that one, elusive interval of comfort that will bring sleep on a pounding windward passage, only to be dashed awake by the cold shock of a rogue wave spilling into her bunk. "Blue Horizons" is a rare journey, one to be savored by sailors and armchair adventurers alike. Praise for Blue "In her new, wonderful book, Beth Leonard shows us a world in which 'perfection' is not bland, easy, escapist comfort in a crowded tropical harbor but a more insecure yet more rewarding existence of constant challenge--cold waters, rocky coves, old fishing villages, demanding seamanship, and the evolution of two sailors trying to manage a boat and also their own relationship." --John Rousmaniere, author of "Fastnet, Force 10," "After the Storm," and "The Annapolis Book of Seamanship" "Let Beth Leonard inspire you to sail around the world, explore the high latitudes, or discover your own capacity for adventure. Each nugget in this 'dream becomes reality' series of revelations is worth a thousand pictures." --Gary Jobson, ESPN sailing commentator, America's Cup Hall of Famer, and author of "Gary Jobson's Championship Sailing" ""Blue Horizons" chronicles a remarkable adventure through some of the globe's most inhospitable waters. . . . Every account in this collection provides a taste and sometimes a feast. It is wise, perceptive, wonderful. If you have ever wondered what it might be like to exchange conventional comforts for an adventure not packaged with round-trip airfare, Beth Leonard has written these dispatches to you." --Don Casey, author of "This Old Boat" and "Don Casey's Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual"
- GenresTravel
179 pages, Hardcover
First published September 5, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 9, 2022
This book is the winner of The National Outdoor Book Award for Literature, and it's easy for me to see why. Beth Leonard has distilled the experience of crossing oceans and making landfall into prose-poetry. Her description of the surge of awe and joy one feels when, mid-ocean, a pod of dolphins decides to follow your boat and play in your bow wave is so truly written that the emotion leaps off the page. Her explanation of the sense of pride and humility inspired by successfully planning and executing an ocean voyage is second to none; I've read a lot of these kinds of books, and Beth Leonard's is without question the best at describing what it feels like to be alone on the ocean, completely dependent on one's own skill and preparation.
I laughed out loud about her story of the first offshore voyage she made with her partner, Evans; she says that trip from Beaufort to Bermuda still stands as the worst beating they've ever taken at sea, with confused seas pounding the boat and winds whipping to 50 knots. After that, she had to be talked back into the idea of completing a circumnavigation by some experienced sailors who happened to be at the dock when they arrived in Bermuda. Like her, my first real offshore sailing was from Florida to the Abacos with my son, and we were ambushed by a pop-up storm that lasted ten hours with winds above 40 knots. Like Beth, I thought at the time, "what the hell am I doing here?". And yet, as Ms. Leonard explains, the sea draws you back, not because you want more of that pain (nobody does), but because the risk of occasionally putting yourself in the way of the ocean's uncaring might is the price of going places and seeing things most people will never see.
Beth emphasizes the hard work that goes into learning the required skills, mechanical, electrical, technological, and, of course sailing, and also the sheer labor of changing sails, cranking winches, fixing things, of upgrading and maintaining systems. She explains the hard lesson that they had to learn: that eventually the ocean will break everything, no matter how expensive or lovingly crafted. Everything has a shortened life at sea, so constant attention must be paid to equipment and electronics. But the pay-off is dolphins, or an albatross flying on your beam, or an anchorage in a remote cove that can only be reached by an ocean-going boat, where sunrise colors greet you as you stand in the companionway with your cup of coffee.
Beth rightly spends time on the spiritual changes that most voyagers experience, whether those are seeing the non-Disneyfied parts of the world, or losing prejudices you didn't even know you had by meeting the kind and friendly people of another land, or strengthening the bonds of your marriage, or basking in the feeling of oneness that comes from being alone in nature. As Beth says, humility comes with the experience, but also joy.
This is a short book, and well worth your time if you are a sailor or if you simply love the natural world.
I laughed out loud about her story of the first offshore voyage she made with her partner, Evans; she says that trip from Beaufort to Bermuda still stands as the worst beating they've ever taken at sea, with confused seas pounding the boat and winds whipping to 50 knots. After that, she had to be talked back into the idea of completing a circumnavigation by some experienced sailors who happened to be at the dock when they arrived in Bermuda. Like her, my first real offshore sailing was from Florida to the Abacos with my son, and we were ambushed by a pop-up storm that lasted ten hours with winds above 40 knots. Like Beth, I thought at the time, "what the hell am I doing here?". And yet, as Ms. Leonard explains, the sea draws you back, not because you want more of that pain (nobody does), but because the risk of occasionally putting yourself in the way of the ocean's uncaring might is the price of going places and seeing things most people will never see.
Beth emphasizes the hard work that goes into learning the required skills, mechanical, electrical, technological, and, of course sailing, and also the sheer labor of changing sails, cranking winches, fixing things, of upgrading and maintaining systems. She explains the hard lesson that they had to learn: that eventually the ocean will break everything, no matter how expensive or lovingly crafted. Everything has a shortened life at sea, so constant attention must be paid to equipment and electronics. But the pay-off is dolphins, or an albatross flying on your beam, or an anchorage in a remote cove that can only be reached by an ocean-going boat, where sunrise colors greet you as you stand in the companionway with your cup of coffee.
Beth rightly spends time on the spiritual changes that most voyagers experience, whether those are seeing the non-Disneyfied parts of the world, or losing prejudices you didn't even know you had by meeting the kind and friendly people of another land, or strengthening the bonds of your marriage, or basking in the feeling of oneness that comes from being alone in nature. As Beth says, humility comes with the experience, but also joy.
This is a short book, and well worth your time if you are a sailor or if you simply love the natural world.
January 30, 2018
Beautifully written vignettes of a voyage around the world.
October 2, 2019
I think the original publishing style (individual essays in a periodical) would be a better way to read this. All together like this, they really blend.
January 13, 2025
A great lunch break read--gives insight into two individuals' travels in short, stand alone chapters. One of those books that makes you want to sell everything and strike out on an adventure.
February 28, 2008
Blue Horizons is a collection of articles originally appearing in Blue Water Sailing magazine. Presented as a series of expanded log entries or perhaps long letters home, Leonard chronicles a six year sailing adventure through the high latitudes of the northern and southern hemispheres. Blue Horizons is more than a travelogue or the story of a sailing adventure, it is one woman's journey of self-exploration as she and her partner Evan sail around the world.
Blue Horizons is a compelling read. If you're considering an ocean voyage, Blue Horizons is a must read. For the rest of us, it is enjoyable read of one woman's exploration of seldom traveled lands and herself.
Blue Horizons is a compelling read. If you're considering an ocean voyage, Blue Horizons is a must read. For the rest of us, it is enjoyable read of one woman's exploration of seldom traveled lands and herself.
May 22, 2009
This book is actually a collection of several articles that Beth Leonard wrote for a sailing magazine detailing her cruising experience. Other than possibly Bernard Moitessier, I have never read an author who so accurately describes the trials, the challenges, or the successes of the cruising life as well as Leonard does. This book should be read by anyone who is considering the cruising life. This is definitely a favorite in my sailing library.
August 17, 2007
WARNING: this book is likely to make you want to up anchor and follow in Beth Leonard's wake to some of the most inhospitable, magnificent and remote seascapes on planet Earth. A captivating and personal account of the cruising life.
November 9, 2013
Enjoyable, well written description of a cruising voyage. W
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews