Peter Nichols

In 1968, nine sailors set off on the most daring race ever held: to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe nonstop. It was a feat that had never been accomplished and one that would forever change the face of sailing. Ten months later, only one of the nine men would cross the finish line and earn fame, wealth, and glory. For the others, the reward was madness, failure, and death. In this extraordinary book, Peter Nichols chronicles a contest of the individual against the sea, waged at a time before cell phones, satellite dishes, and electronic positioning systems. A Voyage for Madmen is a tale of sailors driven by their own dreams and demons, of horrific storms in the Southern Ocean, and of those riveting moments when a split-second decision means the difference between life and death.

A Voyage for Madmen

Andrew John Kinney

Disclaimer: I am a sailor who has sailed in heavy weather, and thus I have more than average interest in this book; others may not find it as fascinating as I did.

"Round the World! There is much in that sound to inspire proud feelings; but whereto does all that circumnavigation conduct? Only through numberless perils to the very point whence we started." 
So said Ishmael in Moby-Dick. 

Since I had already read Bernard Moitessier's book, The Long Way (La Longue Route), I knew about the Golden Globe Race of 1968. Nichols' depiction of the contestants only makes Bernard Moitessier more appealing as a sailor and a man. Moitessier was a character, but also a man of high integrity, and with a few exceptions, those who got to know him well, loved the man. He probably suffered from depression and / or bipolar syndrome, but he was fearless and without peer as a sailor, as he was in his determination to be first around the world single-handed, unassisted. And he was first, in a sense. He crossed his outbound track in the South Atlantic (i.e., he had circumnavigated), and then he gave up the race, choosing to sail from the Atlantic back to Tahiti via the Cape of Good Hope rather than to England where the race ended. So Moitessier sailed 1 and 1/2 times around the world, instead of just once, and he did so without touching land, without getting assistance in any form: not by taking on fresh water or food, not by getting a tow into a port, nor in any other way. His reasons for dropping out of the race are understandable to those sailors who love the sea, and who have sailed in conditions bad enough to make them question why they were out there in the first place.

As the writer points out, the sailors in that 1968 race had more in common with Captain James Cook than they did with the sailors of the 21st Century. There was no GPS, there were no satellite phones, no electric furling of sails, no solar panels to charge batteries. The man who won the race, Knox-Johnston, sailed in a massively over-built wooden boat made of teak, and Moitessier's very simple boat, Joshua, was made of boilerplate steel (all his previous boats were of wood). Though I have sailed five times in the Gulf Stream, once in horrendous conditions, with Force 7-9 winds, I feel like an imposter of a sailor when I read what these guys went through. 

Moitessier sent a message (via slingshot) to a merchant marine ship when he was had decided to give up the race. It said that he was headed to Tahiti via the Cape of Good Hope, and he said he was doing it, "parce que je suis hereux en mer, et peut-etre pour sauver mon ame". "Because I am happy at sea, and perhaps to save my soul." Moitessier felt the prize money of the Golden Globe sullied what was otherwise a noble venture, and he refused to be a part of the "circus" that he foresaw would ensue if he won the race, which seemed likely after he rounded Cape Horn. He respected, even loved, his competitors, and they returned his affection, but he had no use for accolades from those who had no real understanding what he and his competitors had been through. 

Despite my admiration of Moitessier, I probably understand Knox-Johnston (the winner) more clearly. He just kept on, obstinately, working hard to cheer himself up every day, but like Moitessier, and unlike many of the others, he loved the sea. Tetley, the other competitor who came close to finishing, understood completely when Moitessier dropped out; he said, "How like Bernard to do that". Tetley's boat disintegrated under him 1,000 miles from England, and he was rescued at sea. Donald Crowhurst, who mortgaged everything in a desperate bid to win the big prize, went mad and apparently stepped over the side in calm waters in mid-Atlantic, holding his chronometer. 

I loved this book and read it compulsively for three days until I had finished. I think that even for non-sailors, this is a compelling read.

Elizabeth Moore

This book was freaking awesome. I know nothing about yachting or sailing and still was absolutely enthralled by the story. It's the best character development I've ever seen in a non-fiction, non-memoir read, and Nichols manages to bring to life not one fascinating character but nine of them.

The writing is in turns technical and poetic; Nichols never strays too far from the reality of the seas and what all men had to physically and mentally achieve to endure their preparations and sails, but as he transitions and takes breath to give a bird's eye view of what is going on with all of these men and the vastness of their undertaking, you forget you are reading a book about facts and it's like you are listening to a very old mariner bring the sea to life as the main character and make magical and unearthly what was moments before the most scientific and pragmatic of topics.

Beyond that, just a super exciting page turner. The varying fates of all of these men continue to captivate with each page, and it is more than occasionally very hard to believe that this story is true.

Read this!!

A Voyage for Madmen

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