Sea Trial: Sailing After My Father

by Brian Harvey

Shortlisted for the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction An adventure story set against the backdrop of a son trying to understand his father After a 25-year break from boating, Brian Harvey circumnavigates Vancouver Island with his wife, his dog, and a box of documents that surfaced after his father’s death. John Harvey was a neurosurgeon, violinist, and photographer who answered his door a decade into retirement to find a sheriff with a summons. It was a malpractice suit, and it did not go well. Dr. Harvey never got over it. The box contained every nurse’s record, doctor’s report, trial transcript, and expert testimony related to the case. Only Brian’s father had read it all ― until now. In this beautifully written memoir, Brian Harvey shares how after two months of voyaging with his father’s ghost, he finally finds out what happened in the O.R. that crucial night and why Dr. Harvey felt compelled to fight the excruciating accusations.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel, Medical

382 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2019

About the author

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and currently live on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia. I studied biology and music at university, and ended up opting to be a fisheries biologist. That allowed me to see a lot of the world, especially South America, Asia and many remote places along the British Columbia coast. A lot of people and places from these places have ended up in my writing, which began when I realized my travel notebooks were filling up with great stuff about people, places and plots. I started by writing columns and magazine articles. My first book for a general audience was The End of the River (2008).

I'm lucky to live in a place where I can climb a mountain, fish, play the piano, go sailing and write -- all on the same day. Although it would be a long one.

Reviews

[George1st · Rating 5 out of 5]

The twin subjects of sailing and neurosurgery do at first sight seem quite incongruous and yet they indeed successfully form the interconnecting basis for this engrossing, entertaining and educational memoir by Brian Harvey. This is a book about discovery both in a physical and metaphysical sense. The main narrative concerns Brian accompanied by his wife and faithful dog undertaking a rather hazardous two month circumnavigation of Vancouver Island in his sailing boat named Vera. Written in a self deprecating and witty style (reminiscent of Bill Bryson at times) we learn of the adventures, mishaps and characters encountered during the voyage.

You get a real feeling of what it must be like battling in a small boat against the elements and the dangers poised by rocks, rapids and other vessels. All the time you are constantly looking at sea charts and focusing on the latest weather report. We also learn of the social and environmental changes and challenges faced in this area. The decline of commercial fishing and the rise of sport fishing and the impact this has had on the local communities is covered. Allied with this is the controversy concerning the growth of salmon farms and the environmental impact that logging has had over the years. We learn of the colonial history of the area and the present rather segregated plight of the indigenous First Nations communities..

If this was just a narrative of the voyage then this would still be enough to satisfy the average reader but what gives the book its added resonance and distinctiveness is the back story concerning Brian's neurosurgeon father who after eight years of retirement is unexpectedly presented with a summons to appear in a malpractice trail. Although the case commences, his father never testifies as it is quickly settled out of court with the award of a large sum to the plaintiff. Dr. Harvey never got over it and would spend the rest of his life embittered and consumed by the accusations made against him. It is a box containing records, transcripts and expert testimonies relating to this case that Brian takes with him on the voyage as he finally seeks to understand what actually happened in the operating theatre and why the trial had such a detrimental effect on his father's last days.

I certainly found the interchanging narrative worked well and was eager to ascertain what would be the conclusion to both the sea voyage and the voyage of what would ultimately be of self discovery. The author has spent many years as a fisheries biologist which adds an extra resonance and authority to his writing. A really gripping and interesting read which I fully recommend.

[Steven Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a fast breezy (no pun intended) read, that swings between relaxing and idyllic to poignant and meaningful from chapter to chapter. The drama of the sea voyage in chapter 1 doesn't really play out and leads to an anticlimactic moment when they reach the bar. However, the highlights are the comparison between boating and brain surgery and the conversation with the novelists father which are handled with care and thought. The ending left a bittersweet but real feeling of loss amid a struggle to understand his father's actions. Although by the end there is some closure and acceptance it never reaches a satisfying ending...however this makes it all the more real The lingering sense of mortality and loss that is not attempted to be fully resolved or wrapped up makes for a powerful read.
The book feels like a part of a grieving process that doesn't try to reach an end just for the sake of a satisfying conclusion. The realization of why what happened did so is not a happy one and there is no striving to give the reader satisfaction , just something that feels real and still raw.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Bill Bryson, and now of Brian Harvey. Like Bryson, Harvey writes in a self-deprecating, dry-humoured manner. Also like Bryson, Harvey's wit is often so subtly woven below the surface, I dared not speed-read.

Sea Trial takes us on a turbulent voyage of circumnavigation around Vancouver Island. This sailing journey alternates with the author's tenacious grappling to understand the malpractice suit that haunted the final years of his father's life. The juxtapositioning of these two (at first) seemingly incongruent subjects works remarkably well.

Being a Vancouver Islander, I quickly become engrossed in the history and the (often devastating) social and environmental changes that have affected, and continue to threaten, Vancouver Island's people, lands and waters. The author's marine biology background gives extra weight to many of the concerns raised.

This memoir carries the reader across Vancouver Island both physically and emotionally. In a cinematic style, Harvey paints scenes that are breathtaking, scenes that are nailbiting and scenes that are sheer heartbreak.

By the end of the novel, my knees were weak. I felt that I had been a fourth circumnavigation member with Brian, Hatsume and their dog, Charlie.

Sea Trial was shortlisted for the 2019 Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction. I highly recommend this absorbing memoir to all. However...you might not wish to read it when deciding whether or not to buy a sailboat. Just sayin'!

[Jim Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great read! While I am not a sailor,I have read books (fiction and non-fiction) about sailing, and with the added medical aspect,I was thoroughly engaged in reading this book. Beautiful cover as well.

[Eyelandgirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being in the medical field and an offshore sailor living on Vancouver Island, I thought this book would be a perfect local interest read. But I found that the author had a gloomy take on everything....places I have been and found charming, historical and delightful, he always seemed to find the negative. Talk about a downer....no one would ever sail around the Island after reading his take on it.

The bouncing back and forth between stories was extremely disjointed at the beginning, but it found a better groove in the last half of the book. But by then I just wanted to be done with it.

Looks like others liked it...but I'd give it a miss.

[Caroline Woodward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my choice for Father's Day this year, the perfect gift for a lighthouse keeper who loves boats, also the former owner of a sailboat, who appreciates fine writing, shares a dry, self-deprecating sense of humour with the author and whose own father was a lawyer. It's also going into the birthday stack for our son, who has sailed the VanIsle Race, the circumnavigation of Vancouver Island twice on Icon, and who worked as a sail-maker and boat rigger for seven years. He also raced sailboats, mono and double-hulls, in Canada, Europe and the US, before getting his mechanical engineering degree to add to his diploma and has now secured his dream job with a naval architect! So if doctors, lawyers, engine mechanics, sports or commercial fishing experience and sailboats figure large in your life, consider this father and son gift recommendation.

This is not to say the book, which is so well-written it was nominated for Canada's Governor-General's Award for non-fiction in 2019, is an adventurous larky sort of boat story. Far from it. It is a heart-breaker for those many sons who grew up with perfectionist, proud, fiercely intelligent fathers, the kind of fellow who thinks he's naturally topnotch at everything else in life, like sailing, because he's a neurosurgeon. Relationships come second to patients. Nurses are told what to do. Truth and justice will prevail in a legal suit which is delivered to the neurosurgeon's door ten years after he retired...and this is the legal case which the author is reading, in alternating chapters as he sails a boat called Vera around Vancouver Island with his long-suffering (there is no other kind of wife for a sailor, so perhaps I'm hearing the author's voice in my head, chiding me for being redundant) but feisty and armed with as much navigational knowledge as her husband. He seems to make the final decisions, based on "sailing all his life", about tackling potential horror shows like Dodds Narrows and the Nawhitti Bar and rounding Cape Scott and the much-feared Brooks Peninsula, not to mention the shoaling waters off Estevan Point. Thankfully, there is much love and respect for the patience and skill and hard work shared by the couple and their invincible schnauzer dog on board and the humour is absolutely wonderful, leavening the tragedy which is unfolding as the trial transcripts and other supporting evidence is revealed. The father refused to speak about any of this with his son while alive but deftly written and for this reading, convincing conversations do occur on board...

A brilliant book which deserves to join the pantheon of great sea-going books. Kudos to ECW Press for a handsome cover and design for this original trade paperback. I feel like a bookseller or publisher's sales rep again when I read a great book like this, somewhat evangelical, but there are good reads and there are great, outstanding reads and this is one of the latter, hence the five stars.

[Jill Rey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sea Trial is a poetic riff between sailing and the life of the author’s father. This memoir is a last love story to the author’s father and all his faults, as he finally lets him go through the understanding of the malpractice trial that ripped his father’s good name; an event his father never got over. 
 
While I am not a sailor or lover of water, but I felt the author balanced his love for Vancouver Island, his work as a biologist, his childhood and his current adulthood into a cohesive memoir that was poetic, adventurous and at times a bit sad.  He was so convincing in fact that my EXTREMELY sea sickness prone self even thought for a moment about how fun it might be to go sailing. 
 
As Harvey closes the chapter of his father’s life, he invites us in to his renewed passion for sailing, and his grasp in understanding his father’s obsession with the malpractice trial.  Sea Trail is a very intimate look at Harvey’s life, his father’s success and failures, and life in a sail boat.
 
*Disclaimer: A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.  All opinions are my own

[Cat Sanford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Brian tells a great story about his circumnavigation of Vancouver Island with his wife, and dog, and weaves it together with his dead father's story about the law suit and trial that completely overwhelmed and obsessed his father during his final years. While I'm not a sail-boater, I have spent a lot of time on the water and have visited many of the places that he writes about in his book. His self-depreciating voice and accurate descriptions of people and places that he visited are not only informative and interesting but entertaining too.

[Susie Rangel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this one both as a sailing book as well as the story tellers attempts at understanding his father after his death. I felt the author did a really good job of describing the trials and tribulations of sailing around the island. The story of his father and his downward spiral after the trial were gripping and made be wish there had been a much better outcome. I recommend this one!

[Elizabeth Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved every word of this book and rather than found the author's descriptions of the circumnavigation wonderfully realistic, humourous and self-effacing. The juxtapositioning of the father's collapse and the sailing adventure was dead-on fantastic as was the writing.

[David Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to me as a physician where there is always the threat of complaints or litigation when unfortunate medical events take place.
Also interesting to me living on Vancouver Island
Doesn't make me want to buy a sailboat now
Seems safer on land.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining read from the perspective of a couple circumnavigating Vancouver Island. A chilling read from the perspective of a son investigating the malpractice lawsuit against his neurosurgeon father. These two themes are intertwined magestically in Brian Harvey's book

[Roxanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this story. The adventure of the voyage around Vancouver Island and his reading of his fathers malpractice trial. Very well done.

[Sailaway · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very good book. Surprisingly good.

[Les Reynolds · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Andie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved how this story was written, alternating between sailing and his father’s story. It brought two of my favourite subjects together - the sea and medicine.

[Yen-chun Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The justice system is never really looking for real justice or real facts.

[Bagpipe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful story.

[Cliff Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book !

[Linda W · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like a 3.5, mostly just enjoyed the sailing aspect, including the many interesting areas around BC waters. Makes me want to explore more of Vancouver Island.