Jeff’s Reviews > Completely Mad: Tom McClean, John Fairfax, and the Epic Race to Row Solo Across the Atlantic > Status Update

Hansen lists over 20 news outlets that published Fairfax's obituary. Not sure I needed to read the name of each one.

All the boasting about sharks and Fairfax ended up almost being eaten on his second journey.

Hansen doesn't go for nuance in these last pages: the shark-fighting charlatan and the humble hardworking veteran.

Almost unbelievably appropriate landings, from the destinations to the fine details, for both based on their dispositions.

With all the references to Once is Enough you would think Hansen would give a quick explanation of the quote.

Both encountered unusually severe problems just before the ends of their journeys. Perceptions possibly influenced by exhaustion.

A lot of this was entertaining for big time nautical nerds, but at some level, that was about 250 pages of preface for:

To the very end Tom’s commitment was very different from Fairfax’s, as he would do nothing less than complete his journey totally unassisted. He would not be first across the Atlantic alone in a rowboat, but his uncompromising achievement may seem to posterity to merit the greater acclaim.

Not even lacking description, but maybe commentary--something to clarify journal entries like this:

He got into Britannia and did his best to row for a few hours. During the overnight, he “kept falling overboard… still under the effects of the whiskey and euphoria of the meeting."

A good example of the rough edges on Hansen's prose:

"By 10 o’clock it had risen to about 40 MPH and Silver was zipping along so beautifully in the right direction that Tom was so overjoyed he could have cried if he were a crying man."

Hard to reconcile Tom's midnight swims to check the hull with the apprehension related to Bluey, the supposedly 15 foot shark swimming alongside Super Silver, not to mention Fairfax's apocryphal bravado about shark wrangling.