Customer Reviews

Blue Horizons: Dispatches from Distant Seas

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book details both the best of times and the worst of times of long voyages. What I like about this book is that the author describes her inner journey as well as the outer journey. Recommended for both armchair sailors, and those seriously contemplating going cruising.

The saxophone's "sweet golden voice, resonating through the cave... becoming liquid as the water beneath the boat", remains with me as we pass by the cliffs of Nolsoy, in the Faroe Islands, located between Scotland's Outer Hebrides and Iceland. Later on we witness an uncommon sight - "a full-grown male orca more than thirty feet in length swims with his pod of females and youngsters." The image of the orca's "sheer black fin as tall as a man" cutting through the water is vivid and I am breathless when I put the book down.

I am on deck with Beth and her partner Evans when they are tossed about like a toy in savage water and gale-force winds off Tierra del Fuego. Her description of cruising the daring passage along Chile's west coast - where the "Katabatic winds blast downward off the snow-capped rocky mountains in williwaws, capable of knocking down a fifty-foot yacht", is riveting.

No, I'm not a sailor, but I enjoy the discovery of new wonders each day, and the adventure of facing the unknown and finding you can meet the challenges set before you offers one great satisfaction. This book is a compelling read. As a writer myself, I appreciate the author's lyrical writing style, as well as her gift for capturing experiences and holding readers hostage until the last page is finished. Each time I ended a chapter, I couldn't wait to see where we would travel next. I found myself dragging out the heavy atlas to get my bearings at the beginning of each chapter - the author has thoughtfully written the coordinates of every place they sail. The only criticism I find worthy of mention is that the book contains no glossary. Few readers may use one, but it would have greatly enhanced my experiences of reading about off shore cruising.

Ms. Leonard is willing to open and share her life while offering thoughtful considerations for living our own lives with more enthusiasm, more determination, more joie de vivre. I was drawn into the questions she posed for herself- what am I willing to give up for living a life filled with high adventure and accompanying risks? One can't help but admire the courage it takes to endure the hardships Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger have experienced. The author offers a book filled with vivid details recounting captivating adventures. I loved it!

Having sailed many of the waters that ms Leonard describe, all I can say is;, I wish I could express myself half as well. She is so much in tune with herself, her partner, Hawk and her surroundings. A very beautifull book.

Sailing journey books-- the Pardy's most notably, but other as well- usually follow a trip from start to finish. The little mediations you find on nature, self-reliance and self-realization are embedded within a longer narrative about storms, calms, pirates and other near disasters. This book is different and I'm not sure what to make of it. Leonard has the poet's gift for observation and description and pretty much what this book is is a collection of these meditations, within the frame of a few pages of log entries. Don't get me wrong, you know she's on a sailboat, this book doesn't read like "Daily Mediations for Sailors" but as much as I admire her writerly skill, I do prefer a bit more story in my sea stories.

Still, the book's keeper. And I don't keep anything except for books that really interest me.

Blue Horizons is a collection of articles originally appearing in Blue Water Sailing magazine. Presented as a series of expanded log entries or perhaps long letters home, Leonard chronicles a six year sailing adventure through the high latitudes of the northern and southern hemispheres. Blue Horizons is more than a travelogue or the story of a sailing adventure, it is one woman's journey of self-exploration as she and her partner Evans sail around the world.

Leonard explores her relationship with her partner, her friends and family, herself and her world. Along the way we are treated to vivid descriptions of the majesty of the high latitudes and the generosity of those who live in the far corners of the world. Leonard's accounts are frank and honest. No, it is not all paradise; one can get seasick, one does get angry with one's partner. Perhaps the most poignant passages are those addressing her relationship with the sea, and the personal transformations that occur on long ocean passages. Sailing brings one closer to the natural world, a world Leonard aptly describes.

Blue Horizons is a compelling read. If you're considering an ocean voyage, Blue Horizons is a must read. For the rest of us, it is enjoyable read of one woman's exploration of seldom traveled lands and herself.

Dave Lochner
NauticalReads

This book reads like a novel about the cruising experience and why people want to sail to far away places. It's not a How-To book; Beth's other book "The Voyagers Handbook" is an excellent How-To reference for offshore sailing. In Blue Horizon Beth shares her reasons for sailing to far away places and her inner feelings and awareness during her travels. She describes the beauty, the satisfactions, the thrills and the fears she experiences. This book can be enjoyed by the non sailor as well as the sailor. An added treat is to put the Lat & Long for each destination into Google Earth and view photos that travelers have inserted. The photos provide a view of the scenes that Beth and Evan enjoyed.

There is a simple way to convince your partner to spend the next few years cruising with you: offer her (or him) this book! After reading the 177 pages, life ashore will seem dull and monotonous to anyone. Beth Leonard is a passionate sailor and a gifted writer, deeply in love with the world, and her "dispatches from distant seas" will become as vivid as your own memory to you. When I sent my thanks by mail, after reading Blue Horizons, Beth Leonard replied at 2am, on watch during a passage back to Chesapeake. Reading the three paragraphs of her answer, I was almost smelling the warm South Easterly wind that pushed her back home. Few writers convey such a longing for the sea. Each time you finish this book - because you're drawn to read it several times - you will be left with deep regrets ...of not yet being off on your own.

Absolutly great reading format! Each section transports you to the location on the planet that is being written about. Each passage releases the human sole from the busy world we have created for ourselves to be delivered to the natual world from which we were born into. This book is packed with adventure, natural beauty, and humanity, each in it's own little place just as if the book itself was being prepared for a long ocean crossing. Wonderful!

Interesting true adventure. You will learn about nature. Who knew all this was going on out in the oceans from Iceland to South America and the Pacific. Not many couples could survive the isolation. The book was truly a joy to read.

What a great read this was! Pleasurable for those wanting to do what Beth & Evans are doing. I had to wait a long time for this book to be shipped and it was well worth the wait. Highly recommended.