GENTLEMEN NEVER SAIL TO WEATHER
The Story of an Accidental Odyssey
by Denton Rickey Moore
Pages 492
ISBN: 0-9628828-3-6
Price: $19.95 postpaid (softcover)
A humorous and colorful account of a five-year voyage around the world by two senior citizens, a dog and a calico cat, who quite accidentally fulfilled the dream of a lifetime by sailing downwind so far that it was easier to keep going than try to turn back! A Book-of-the-Month Club Selection!
REVIEWS
Library Journal:
This is a rather charming (if verbose) account of a couple's sail around the world in a 50-foot wooden ketch. Fellow senior citizens will be impressed by the feats with an elderly boat and its complicated rigging. Their descriptions of the various countries they visit and the people they encounter -- including fellow sailors and a never-successful volunteer crew -- make for interesting reading. There are the usual storms and other mishaps, not to mention endless details involving the various mechanical components of the boat. Recommended for libraries serving armchair sailors. Robert E. Greenfield, formerly with the Baltimore City P.L.
Publisher's Weekly:
Moore, an ex-Marine, lawyer and government official, resigned from his Washington, D.C. job in 1981 to sail around the world with his wife in a 41-year-old Concordia yawl. This account of their nearly five years of travel is the print version of a lengthy home movie, complete with details from the ship's logbook, mishaps on the high seas, tales of fellow sailors and difficult crew members, and brief glimpses of portside life in places as diverse as Panama, Fiji, New Zealand and South Africa. Moore's prose is breezy and clear, and sailing enthusiasts or those wishing to duplicate such a trip may find the book instructive. Indeed, Moore shares his hard-won knowledge of seamanship and includes a fairly technical appendix on sailing tactics. The general reader, however, must plow through much narrative to reach any nuggets of interest, such as a visit to the French Polynesian island that was the setting of Melville's novel Typee and an observation, based on negotiations with the New Zealand Customs Service, that "Kiwis dislike and therefore instinctively avoid confrontations." (June)