Book Description
Racing the World's Most Dangerous Waters
Godforsaken Sea is the hair-raising account of the
world's most demanding, dangerous, and deadly sailing race.
Around the world, one sailor, one boat, no stops, no
assistance.
Author Derek Lundy's vivid book follows the field of the
1996 - 1997 Vendee Globe through the race's grueling
four-month circumnavigation of the globe, most of it through
the terror of the Southern Ocean.
Lundy narrates the race through the eyes and experiences
of sixteen sailors - fourteen men and two women - who embdoy
the best and most eccentric aspects of our human condition.
There's the gallant Brit who spends days beating back against
the worst seas to save a fellow sailor; the Frenchman who
bothers to salvage only a bottle of champagne from his broken
and sinking boat; the sailor who comes to love the albatross
that trails her for months, naming it Bernard; the sailor who
calmly smokes a cigarette as his boat capsizes; and the
Canadian who, hours before he disappears forever, dispatches
this message:
If you drag things out too long here, you're sure to come
to grief.
With the literary touch of Saint-Exupery and Conrad, Derek
Lundy harnesses hurricane-force winds, six story waves,
icebergs, and deafening noise. And he lays bare the spirit of
the men and women who push themselves to the outer limits of
human endeavor - even if it means never returning home.
