Sea Of Dreams: Racing Alone Around The World In A Small Boat

by Adam Mayers

The biennial Around Alone yacht race (now known as the 5-Oceans Challenge) is the most thrilling adventure in the world for the sailors passionate enough to undertake it. Among the competitors in 2002 was Derek Hatfield, a former fraud-squad Mountie, whose forty-foot Spirit of Canada had cost him almost everything he had. In this nail-biting account of the race, Adam Mayers brings to life the joys and the agonies of racing alone — and the dreams that drive these men and women to sail around the world solo. Watch for Hatfield when he competes again in 2006.

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 2004

Reviews

[David Forsyth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps because I know the taste of salt-water spray and understand the burden of skippering one's own sloop to a safe harbour, I found Sea of Dreams thoroughly exhilarating. Mayers's non-fiction narrative allows those of us who are destined to be spectators to share the excitement and dread of sailing conditions that few mariners will ever experience. The majority of skippers, at one time or another, entertain the idea of circumnavigating though few steer their dream beyond the harbour entrance. Mayers's description of the heroic passages of a handful of men and one woman is a great read if adventure is what you seek. Be prepared to feel their discomfort as they battle the enormous seas of the Southern Ocean, and overcome equipment failures and fatigue, in an effort to be first over the finish line.

[Katie Verhaeren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Riviting true life adventure story about a group of sailors competing in a single handed race around the world. The race takes the sailors through incredibly dangerous seas, hurricane force winds, temperatures at the extremes, in addition to physical and metal torment. The closest many of us will come to ever doing this.