Synopses & Reviews
Taste the salt spray. Watch the green water swirling down your leeward deck. Hear the cries of seabirds skimming wave tops thousands of miles from land. To dip into the pages of
The Hal Roth Seafaring Trilogy is to throw open the doors and windows of your imagination on a vast, wild seascape, where any adventure is possible.
Hal Roth is the Homer of our generation, a wandering storyteller who for years has sailed distant oceans in small boats. The tales he brings back are all the more incredible because they are true, and three of his all-time classics are gathered here, for the first time, between one set of covers.
A journalist before he was a voyager, Roth combines a journalists powers of observation and flinty realism with the poetic insights of a long-distance sailor and a graceful phrasing all his own. His utterly distinctive voice can be confused with no other nautical storyteller. He hides vast stores of seagoing knowledge in simple descriptions. Sailors are advised to read each story twice: first for the pleasure of a great adventure, then for a wealth of insights on overcoming adversity at sea.
In Two on a Big Ocean, we accompany Hal and his wife, Margaret, on their first major sea trek from San Francisco to Japan by way of the South Pacific islands, and back via the Aleutians, Alaska, and Canada. Hals flowing narrative and vivid photographs reveal the many ways in which this dream passage became a voyage of discovery. The two sailors learned to cope with everything from equipping their 35-foot sloop Whisper for a voyage of nineteen months to the perils of scalpel-sharp coral reefs and opaque fog. Roths gritty, authentic narrative underscores his singular ability to explore the quintessential aspects of the human condition as revealed in a small boat at sea.
Not content with surviving and thriving through 19,000 unpredictable miles at sea, Hal and Margaret decided to test their mettle against the most daunting stretch of water any sailor can face. Two Against Cape Horn tells two stories: a delightful tale of the couples pioneering cruise down the Chilean coast, followed by a harrowing account of turmoil, shipwreck, and recovery in savage, storm-tossed seas.
In The Longest Race, Hal delivers a taut, crisply written account of the greatest sea adventure ever undertaken: the first solo, nonstop race around the world in small sailboats. Of the nine men who undertook the challenge, only one would finish; all the others would drop outor worse. Drawing from the sailors firsthand accounts and his own understanding gained as a contestant in two later round-the-world solo races, Hal zeroes in on the essence of this competition: the ability to withstand a barrage of physical, mental, and emotional rigors over hundreds of days alone at sea.
Here are three classic tales of crossing huge oceans in small boats, three irresistible invitations to escape a winter night or a fogbound anchorage for the wild heart of a distant sea.
Hal Roth and his wife, Margaret, have crossed all of the worlds oceans and sailed to a thousand foreign ports. Hal has also raced twice around the world single-handed in the BOC Challenges of 1986-87 and 1990-91. A magazine writer and photographer (over 400 articles), Hal has written eight books about his adventures and two how-to books, including How to Sail Around the World, also available from International Marine.
Big adventures on the high seasfrom one of the greatest seafaring writers of our age
Hal Roths vivid, authentic tales of the sea have riveted readers around the world for forty years. Here, in one volume, are three of his classic sea stories, each one a white-knuckled, rail-down voyage into the unknown.
A hard-working San Francisco husband and wife abandon their jobs, their security, and, some would say, their sanity to sail their 35-foot sloop to Japan and backthe long way! Over the next nineteen months, they discover exotic islands, fascinating people, and a whole new way of life.
A few years later these intrepid voyagers decide to try their luck against Cape Horn, but they will need a lot more than luck to survive the vicious storms, violent seas, and perilous shores of the worlds most dangerous stretch of water.
Then nine courageous sailors accept a challenge to do what has never been done before: to race alone, in a small sailboat, around the worldnonstop. Only one will complete the race; seven will be forced to withdraw, and one will simply disappear.
“Roth writes with grace, humor, and poetic insight about the vastness and beauty of the ocean.”Library Journal
“By all means read all of Hal Roth you can find.”Practical Sailor
“Roths books about his life at sea, including Two on a Big Ocean and Two Against Cape Horn, are universally listed among the most influential sailing books ever published.”SpinSheet
“Roth can charm you out of your armchair.”Kirkus
Synopsis
Big adventures on the high seasfrom one of the greatest seafaring writers of our ageHal Roths vivid, authentic tales of the sea have riveted readers around the world for forty years. Here, in one volume, are three of his classic sea stories, each one a white-knuckled, rail-down voyage into the unknown.
A hard-working San Francisco husband and wife abandon their jobs, their security, and, some would say, their sanity to sail their 35-foot sloop to Japan and backthe long way! Over the next nineteen months, they discover exotic islands, fascinating people, and a whole new way of life.
A few years later these intrepid voyagers decide to try their luck against Cape Horn, but they will need a lot more than luck to survive the vicious storms, violent seas, and perilous shores of the worlds most dangerous stretch of water.
Then nine courageous sailors accept a challenge to do what has never been done before: to race alone, in a small sailboat, around the worldnonstop. Only one will complete the race; seven will be forced to withdraw, and one will simply disappear.
“Roth writes with grace, humor, and poetic insight about the vastness and beauty of the ocean.”Library Journal
“By all means read all of Hal Roth you can find.”Practical Sailor
“Roths books about his life at sea, including Two on a Big Ocean and Two Against Cape Horn, are universally listed among the most influential sailing books ever published.”SpinSheet
“Roth can charm you out of your armchair.”Kirkus
About the Author
Hal Roth has written eight books abouthis sailing adventures and two how-to books.
Table of Contents
Two on a Big Ocean
1. An Idea
2. The Long Crossing
3. So Lofty and Green
4. The People of the Sea
5. Everybody's Paradise
6. Where Are the Cooks?
7. The Smallest Island
8. The Heart of Polynesia
9. Twice Adopted
10. The Back Door to Yesterday
11. Close to Shipwreck
12. The Porpoise Is Dead, the Whale Is Sunk
13. A Large Outrigger Has Been Sighted
14. Where Are You, Magellan?
15. A Sail in Japan
16. Are the Aleutians Cold?
17. Gales, Totems, and Eagles
Appendix: A Few Notes on Whisper
Notes
Two Against Cape Horn
Maps
1. Where Do Ideas Come From?
2. A Change of Wind
3. A Rustle of Fabric
4. The Fjord in the Mountains
5. Black Hulls and Shellfish
6. Who Was Anna Pink?
7. Condors and Shipwrecks
8. Strong Winds
9. Shipwreck
10. Salvage
11. A Giant Repair
12. South Again
14. Final Triumph
Notes
The Longest Race
Illustrations
The Nine Contestants
Beaufort Wind Scale
1. Without Stopping
2. The Early Starters
3. Sharks and Giant Yachts
4. The Middle Starters
5. Different Captains
6. The Late Starters
7. What Do They Do All Day?
8. Capsize
9. Oysters and Pheasant
10. Collision at Cape Agulhas
11. A View of Death
12. The Impractical Sailor
13. "Come On God"
14. South from Trindade
15. Across the Indian Ocean
16. The Documented Liar
17. A Hell of a Prospect
18. "Nasty Hissing Seas"
19. A Slice of His Soul
20. On to Cape Horn
21. The Gentle Philosopher
22. The Battered Trimaran
23. Back to the South Atlantic
24. Homeward Bound
25. A Separate Peace
26. Meeting with Himself
27. Valiant to the End
28. The Winner
29. The Loser
30. The Last Word
Bibliography