Overboard

by Hank Searls

Librarian note: An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Mitch Gordon, lawyer and yachtsman, awakens 70 miles from Tahiti to find himself alone in his 40-foot ketch. Sometime in the last dark hours his wife Lindy has been swept overboard into the giant Pacific swells. For 36 hours he clings aloft in the tropical sun, tracing and retracing the vessel's course. Lindy, buoyed by a flimsy life-jacket, struggles to survive until he can find her.

In his fiction, Hank Searls has always drawn on personal experience. He is the author of THE BIG X, THE CROWDED SKY, HEROSHIP and LOST PRINCE. He lives with his wife aboard their ketch in the South Pacific.

Genres: Fiction

283 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Born Henry Hunt Searls Jr. novelist and screenwriter Hank Searls, author of the best-selling Overboard, Jaws II (based on the movie), and Sounding, is creator of the New Breed TV series and writer for the 1960's classic television series The Fugitive . His novel Pilgrim Project became Robert Altman's film Countdown. He has lived most of his life on, under, or over the ocean, having been a world-cruising yachtsman, underwater photographer, and Navy flier.

Reviews

[Linda Rehberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in a Reader's Digest Condensed version. Picked up the book one evening, read the first line and I was immediately hooked. It's the only book I've ever stayed up all night to read from start to finish. A very compelling read!

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book twenty years ago, and I can still feel the panic this main character experienced as he searched for his wife. The ending remains with you a long time.

[Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is hard to rate. 3 if you aren't a sailor, 4 if you are. There is so much sailor lingo in this book, it may have gone overboard itself just with that. If you are a sailor and plan to sail across the seas, or have already been there, you might enjoy this a little more than others. A man wakes up to find his wife has been overboard for who knows how long. The rest of the novel is about him trying to find her, his panic, flashbacks on his professional life and their life together on the sailing trip thus far. That last part got a little tedious at times, but it was worth reading through that to get to the end, which I didn't like. But it sure kept my attention.

[Mattis Kantor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Attention keeping book even without understanding most of the sailboat technical terms, until the end... well, the end is the end...

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 1977. Tense novel about a woman lost at sea and her husbands search for her.

[Craig Schlossin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just the kind of ending I hate. I feel like my time was wasted.

[Gillian Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book from the 70s, lent to me by a long-time sailor and described by him as an "exciting ride". It was engrossing, being immersed in the world of two people who gave up their land-based lives, fitted up a yacht, and set sail on the Pacific. As the author and his wife apparently experienced this, it rang true, but was also very well-written. No down-talking to landlubbers (there was a glossary, thank goodness), all-too-imaginable rough, nauseating seas and endless hard tasks and couple conflicts, and the tension of hoping that the two of them would end the book together. The plot developed as the husband is frantically searching for his wife who fell overboard one night, with looks back by both of them at how they arrived at this point. No spoiler alert, will just say that this is a great read.

[Lynette Lark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't a good book to read if you and husband are planning to buy a sailboat and live-aboard. It was also made into a movie with Angie Dickinson.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

My husband and attempted to take a sailing honeymoon. Insrrad it rained everyday. So we ended up reading JAWS and OVERBOARD. We did other things too, but reading books on honeymoon is something not quite expected. This book was sheer tension from beginning to end. Our hero and his wife are the only two people on the craft. They take shifts sleeping and sailing. He awakens to find her gone overboard. Using log entries and compass ppints, etc., he travels back to where their shift had changed. He knows she is in a life vest. After days of retracing he finds her. What happens next is not mine to tell.

[Connie Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't read novels very often, but I love stories of the sea. This one is really good. A man wakes up on his boat to find his wife has fallen overboard. The story is of the search for her, and the ending will leave you breathless. It is a great read; I haven't forgotten it.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is sure a book for sailors! The lingo is going to scare landlubbers away. It tells of a middle aged couple who escape to the South Pacific on a beautiful wooden ketch. It doesn't turn out so well....

[Chris Gager · Rating 3 out of 5]

My parents got me to read this book back in the...70's(?). It's pretty involving. A maritime soap opera/romance/adventure/cliffhanger. A TV movie back then with Cliff Robertson and Angie Dickinson. In spite of what it says above I don't think she had a lifejacket on. Date read is a guess.

[penny roth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It's a great sailing adventure and mystery.

[Molly]

Interesting

[Teri · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for life and death adventures and love another book by Searls, Sounding. However I found this mid-life crises a bore to trowel through and the ending melodramatic.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

a little choppy in it's meter. at times too wordy as well. ending was expected but not expected at the same time.

[Veronica Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

(B)
"Too technical"

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-read after 30 years. Fun if you're a sailor.

[Dylan R. Nix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely devastating and heartbreaking. This one sat with me for a while and I can’t explain why. I found this at a goodwill and the cover drew me in, and now it’s in my top favorites of all time.