Ten Years Behind The Mast

by Fritz Damler

Personal Account of a ten year circumnavigation aboard the 35 Ft. classic wooden sailboat, Theodora R

211 pages, Paperback

First published July 10, 2006

About the author

Fritz Damler began his writing career in 1994 after completing a ten year circumnavigation on a 35 ft. classic wooden cutter.
Plunge: Midlife with Snorkel, is co-authored with his wife Mari Anderson and details their first four years building a home on a remote Bahamian Island. Plunge won an award at the 2012 New York Book Festival. His widely acclaimed sailing memoir, Ten Years Behind the Mast, was published in 2008. He has also penned three mystery/thrillers, A Rug to Die For, Suvarov and Okavango with John S. Marr MD. Suvarov won first place for action/adventure at the 1996 Southwest Writers Conference.
He has just released Thelma and the Whore of Babylon, a fantasy about two conflicting boat spirits sharing the same hull and how it affects a man’s voyage.

Reviews

[Daken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not particularly well written, but fun to follow his circumnavigation. It is mostly written as if he took his log book and turned into a book (more facts and details than stories), but entertaining nonetheless.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read; entertaining. Not a particularly epic tale; never a tale of disaster, or uproariously funny. But an interesting account of globetrotting by sea, and a envious 10 year advenrure I think many of us dream about.

[Charlie Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting account of a turn your trip around the world in a small wooden boat. It’s something I had always sort of dreamed of doing but the authors account has convinced me that I would never make a good circumnavigator.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick read , but not expected.

[Don]

I am currently reading this book and find it very interesting and entertaining. Fritz Damler has captured the real life experience of sailing that most of us just dream about. I would have loved to have accomplished what he did at that age, to take a dream to reality. It is not what is currently happening in the U.S. with the younger generation. I understand Fritz has another book available (Plunge - Crafting the Uncommon Midlife)only on Kindle. Would to see this available on Google Ebooks.

[Lithographette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fritz is a better sailor than a writer, but his true-life tale of ten years sailing around the world is engaging on its own without any fancy prose. There were lots of technical details about the boat itself that were lost on me, but did not detract from the tale.

[Dianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing true story of the 'round the world voyage of the author.

[Djh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thirty-five years ago, I spent 9 months of those 10 years as Fritz's crewman, and not for a moment during our time as shipmates on land and sea was it ever apparent to me that he had such eloquence and soul inside him.

In Ten Years Behind the Mast, Fritz takes his reader inside his mind, inside his heart, and once or twice inside his trousers.

This book is a gem, as close to Hemingway as any teller of tales can get - a masterpiece of narrative with peeks of his insight into the nature of the beings he encounters, and into himself.

You feel like you are walking in his shoes, sharing his struggles with winds, waves, sails, engines, women, apple trees, ...and crew! :) Good luck, Fritz.