The Water in Between: A Journey at Sea

by Kevin Patterson

Wise, funny and beautifully written, The Water in Between is an inspiring-and cautionary-tale for anyone who has ever wanted to escape into another life.

A stint in the army and a broken heart lead Kevin Patterson, who has never sailed before, to buy a 37-foot sailboat. He recruits a more experienced sailor-another brokenhearted guy-and together they set sail for Tahiti, hoping to burn away their miseries in hard miles at sea.

At first Patterson finds life under sail distinctly less heroic than the travel literature that has inspired him. But when his companion remains behind, Patterson single-handedly sails his boat across the North Pacific and through a perilous four-day gale, truly testing himself against the elements.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Canada, Adventure

304 pages, Paperback

First published August 12, 1998

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I re-read this book on an annual basis (usually during a time of personal crisis) and always take away something new from it. It’s nice to have a book that can be revisited in a variety of contexts with the knowledge that it will offer up lessons. It is a story of a broken (or so he thinks) man who sails away from life’s troubles only to find himself on a small boat at sea with none of the worldly things to distract him from his memories and conscience. A painfully realistic account of travel, this book offers up a slew of quotable quotes and snippets of wisdom. Patterson deconstructs the mystique of travel and lays it bare, scrutinizing the loneliness, sickness, and excess that accompanies large trips in small boats. He strikes a nice balance between revering and criticizing modern nomads such as Bruce Chatwin, Bernard Moitessier, and Paul Theroux and does a thorough job of investigating the impetus which lies behind our need to move.

[Neelam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book about the effects of travel on the soul.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unexpected...really beautiful and soulful.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought back in February for real cheap in a bookstore that was closing down. I think it was only a pound or two - and it was an amazing bargain, as I really enjoyed this book, despite having no knowledge or real interest in boats. However, this memoir of a heart-broken man who decides to buy a boat and take it sailing (even though he knows nothing at all about sailing) still managed to appeal to me through the personable and humorous approach Kevin Patterson takes in his clever and confident writing.

The adventures (and misadventures!) he comes across are poignant and touching and his characters - even the less than perfect ones - are lovingly portrayed. Kevin himself comes across as extremely likeable and his interesting interludes on other subjects are very interesting to read, adding another dimension to the main plot. Not only did I really like this memoir, but I also came away feeling that I really like the man who wrote it, too.

[Matt]

Brilliant, honest and hilarious

[Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not so much about sailing as about living; navigating life and relationships, this story is filled with beautiful ruminations on the great travel writers of our time - which Patterson joins in writing this book. Of course as a sailor I am drawn to any book about sailing, and it is notable that the author has done his work to be knowledgeable but not too unapproachable in his use of the language of sailing and navigating the oceans (which is refreshing, even as someone who has command of this language aplenty). All of his prose is well woven and beautiful. At times the story lags, but for me it is bolstered by the astute summations of the travel writings of particularly Chatwin, as well as ancedotes Patterson tells of the Inuit and the Pacific Islanders, the way he crossed cultures to get right to the heart of human resourcefulness, bravery, and also loneliness and longing. In doing so, Patterson tells not just another sea adventure story, but a very human story as well, that will resonate with anyone longing for living, not just those longing for the sea.

[The · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wryly lyrical account of a landlubber sailing from Vancouver Island to the South Pacific. Well crafted, referencing other authors of travelogues from Salman Rushdie to Theroux, with a keen eye for human foibles, including his own. It has earned a spot on the permanent bookshelf.

[Heep · Rating 5 out of 5]

The value of this book becomes most apparent at the end. There were times when it meandered - drifted in a seemingly aimless way - which is appropriate given the topic. Ultimately, it is very honest and insightful - not in a Ted Talks kind of way - not the type of tale where the author did something unique and now has come to truly understand life. This book is a very humble and humane retelling of a somewhat pointless expedition by sail from Vancouver to Oceania. The writing is excellent with careful attention to detail. The author's experience is recounted in a stark, and to my eye, totally unflattering way. In fact, for much of the book he is very hard to like, but in the end he displays a capacity for honest awareness that makes this a great adventure book, a thoughtful review of some of the other great adventure writers and an insightful memoir of our times.

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book as I've read other ocean crossing books and loved the danger and the sense of isolation that a crew encounters on their journey. Sadly this book just didn't have as much of that as I'd hoped for. Although Patterson wanted to give the reader background information into his life and what brought him to his cross ocean journey, each time he left the boat and dove into the past I found myself extremely uninterested. As well, the large stretches of ocean voyage history felt so disconnected and dry I found myself skipping over them completely towards the end of the book. For a book that featured so many days and weeks on the sea, there was such a small proportion of the crossings in the book to make it even interesting. Needless to say I was happy when it was over.

[Chana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the true story of a doctor from Manitoba who, in a fit of depression and with no sailing experience, decides to buy a boat and sail to Tahiti. He does so and he writes a good book about it. I enjoyed his bravery and cynical sense of humor through most of the book but eventually got tired of hearing what he was thinking. When he wanted to get home and get off his boat I found that I was also ready to end the adventure. It was exciting to read while he was enjoying his sail on the Sea Mouse.

[Patrick O'Hannigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the plus side, Kevin Patterson is smart and well-read. He's done his homework with respect to travel literature and its maritime subset. Better still, he writes with an eye for detail. But on the minus side, this Canadian doctor who took up long-distance sailing after a broken heart often seems morose and self-absorbed. His bored contempt for military service at an artillery base quickly wears thin, and he seems incapable of healthy relationships despite occasionally insightful comments about them.

The best parts of the book are an unexpected idyll on Penrhyn Atoll in the Northern Cook Islands, and Patterson's faithful three-page recounting of several conversations with an old French priest who dedicated his life to Catholic service among native Inuit people in the Arctic. Over several lunches of caribou stew, Fr. Louis Fournier helps Patterson see parallels he might otherwise have missed between Inuit society and Polynesian society.

[Moz Copestake · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful escapist read, someone else's great adventure (misadventure?). It is a journey, both introspective and across the globe, both journeys intertwining as the world reflects the thinking and the thinking reflects the world. All jangling with the emotions of having to "get away from it all"!
At times philosophical and thought provoking, exhilarating and dangerous. A journey taken almost impulsively, in parts with others and in parts as a solitary traveller. One cannot help but think, very early on, that this is a foolhardy venture, where more forethought would have helped, but then how often do we spend so long on the forethought that we never go on the adventure. Procrastination, the great preventer.
The journey is rewarded, not always but enough, not as expected but how could it be? It is in the nature of journeys to be revelations and surprises. Enjoy your trip.

[Sanjay Carter-rau · Rating 3 out of 5]

A refreshingly bemused rumination on the idea of adventure and travel, nomadism and exploration. The author is thoughroughly self-deprecating which brings a refreshing honesty and cuts through the egoism that the Adventure genre is rife with. The honesty of befuddlement brings the reader along on the journey, how a relatively average human, though with a penchant for perusing tomes of timeless adventure, end up themselves, alone in the vastness of the ocean. Other characters are relayed with a perplexing mix of most surface encounter, and deep insight into their own journeys.
I enjoyed the quoted and referenced books, especially Chatwin who was a precursor to this more more version of the adventure-at-sea genre.

[Kathy O · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book. A deep introspection on ‘place’; our relationship to place, self and others; why we travel/escape/adventure; what home is. I read this book after following Cole Brauer (on Instagram) on her solo around the world sailing race (4 months at sea), though I’ve had Patterson’s book for years. I’ve been to an uninhabited island in the Pacific on a sailboat, and spent 2 months there back in 1984; this book took me back to all that. It also took me further a-sea in the Pacific, as well as to the northern desolate reaches of Canada, and to some of the difficult and confusing places in our psyches. I appreciated the powerful spare prose. Lastly, the name of the boat couldn’t be more adorable.

[Stephen Meyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable book that describes one man's efforts to run away by taking a long distance sailing trip. In the end he realizes that he needs the very things from which he is running away, most importantly his family and friendships. The portions of the book that describe the sea passages, visits to islands in the South Pacific and his return home were particularly engrossing. The author's discussions of the reasons why people make such long trips and the writings of various travel authors sometimes became too detailed for my taste. Add this to the list of travel books that one can read if interested in sailing trips from British Columbia to the South Pacific islands.

[Ian Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really need a 3.5 star option for rating.

Was untrusting of the narrator/author of this book at first and never really reconciled that mistrust (mostly I’m unsure of his relationships with other people and the untold stories I feel are there).

But this book has value for me in its exploration of travel and solitude. Often promoted as heroic and wisdom inducing (go find yourself!), solo adventures can be maddening, lonely, and unsatisfying. The cognitive dissonance of travel literature influencing the author while he knows much of it is a lie is an interesting idea to follow through in a piece of travel literature.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read for the most part. It is a first person true account of a prairie boy from Selkirk and his decision to sail the Pacific Ocean to Tahiti. Was it a hare brained idea for a non-sailor?
It had some lengthy passages about his readings of Chatwin, but all in all, it was a well written tale of one man's journey to "find himself" and shared some very interesting details in the telling.

[Patsey]

For an inexperienced sailor on a small boat to sail from Victoria to Tahiti and back I was expecting a much more exciting adventure. Too introspective. And lengthy. I languished in the doldrums on this one.

[Britta Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was inspiring, I miss sailing after reading it and now want to save up every penny and buy a sailboat. I liked the first half of the book and the second half was way more confusing and I got lost. A good adventure inspiring story!!

[Marnie Z · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't finish..

[Yvette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written and insightful. I enjoyed getting to know Kevin Patterson on this sailing adventure of a lifetime.

[Hans Henecke · Rating 3 out of 5]

En annorlunda bok om långsegling med självbiografisk bas(?)

[Shelly Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed some of it but found it dragged too.

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love to sail and love reading about sailing trips. So I was all set to take another armchair sailing adventure when I came across this book. I was not that thrilled by the time I finished reading it.

Kevin Patterson is a doctor who wants to get away from his hateful life in the Canadian army in Manitoba. Without knowing a thing about sailing, he buys a boat, meets up with someone who did have some sailing experience, and they head out for the "Paradise" of Tahihi.

By the end of the book (after two years) he has learned enough to sail back to Canada by himself and we have endured some near misses with him. But, to my great disappointment, the book is mostly about other things, especially numerous long quotes from famous books OTHER SAILORS have written about the sea and the author's mooning about ex-loves. In fact, maybe one third of the book is about the author's trip. I think he was very lucky to have made it home in one piece because he lacks one critical thing required for long distance sailing - the ability to THINK AHEAD and prepare for anything that could possibly go wrong and also for what you think is IMPOSSIBLE to go wrong. (On my first sailing date with a new friend I dropped an expensive winch handle overboard. He still married me!) Too many events happen for which Patterson is unprepared and would not happen to an experienced sailor.

As for the writing, is is surprisingly good. Patterson has a sense of humor and can make light of things that happened to him such as throwing up into the wind!

[Thalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll admit, my eyes got a little glassy sometimes...the boat details were killing me. But when the main character was recounting his past (as a soldier doctor based out of Shilo), I was riveted. And the best chapter of the whole book (Ch 12) was a fascinating essay in itself on life in the north country (as in the NWT/Nunavut). Aside from the glassy eye parts this book was beautifully written with, at times, mind blowing poetic descriptions. It won't be for everyone but I'd love to read more from this author...

[Rob Tilley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful travel book in the tradition of Bruce Chatwin and Paul Theroux. In fact, the author includes many excerpts from these and other travel writers. Most of the book is about the author's voyage on a small sailing boat from Victoria, BC to the South Pacific and back again including a solo journey from Hawaii to Vancouver Island. I especially liked the author's thoughtful comments about himself and his companions on this journey.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

i liked about the first half of the book. after that it was just more of the same, and it got a little boring.

it wasn’t really a travel adventure story like i was expecting. it was more of a memoir of the time that he was at sea/planning to go to sea. it was well written, so that’s good, and he had a sense of humor, which was also good. but, i would have liked more about the journey and the places he stopped instead of the internal musings about life, etc.

[Hilary Lang Greenebaum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished and really enjoyed his philosophical musings as he sails from Canada to Tahiti. Some of the sailing techno arcana was a bit much but I breezed through those parts. There are interesting historical sections as well. The author reveals, or appears to reveal, a lot about himself and his vulnerabilities. I read this first book b/c I liked Consumption so much! If you like to sail and dream of picking up and sailing away, read this and meet his cast of characters.

[Stacy Bearse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two young Canadians, caught in the doldrums of life, decide to do something completely different: Buy a concrete sailboat, and set sail from Vancouver to Tahiti. This is a grand sailing story, although the crisp narrative is dulled by frequent digressions into the literature of wanderlust. A little less worship of Bruce Chatwin's "The Songlines" would have been sufficient. That said, read this book if you love the sea and the people who challenge it.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic tale! An exploration of solitude, travel, and companionship. Beautiful with a surprising sense of humor that makes the adventure a human instead of Herculean affair. The sailing details are plentiful with vivid descriptions of squalls, far-off lands, and the search for meaning. I can't say enough about what a fine job Kevin Patterson has done in capturing his deeply personal and thought-provoking journey.