Return To The Sea [Hardcover]

Webb Chiles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2004

Renowned sailor and author Webb Chiles, whose adventures were previously chronicled in A Single Wave, returns with a beautifully written account of his fourth circumnavigation. Chiles departs with his wife, Carol, leaving the bleak winter of Boston Harbor and his despair over the near-fatal loss of his previous vessel, Resurgam His joy in being at sea again makes this a joyous and inspiring story.

Chiles tempts his readers to make the voyage too, observing some of the great harbors of the world with a true sailor's eye, exploring the Atlantic ports of Portugal, Africa, and Brazil, crossing the Southern Ocean, and finally arriving in Australia. On board The Hawke of Tuonela, he writes lyrically about time and memory at sea, the appeal of lying at anchor off a small village, his hardest passage in a quarter century, and his unique philosophical view of life under sail.

Editorial Reviews

Review

By his own admission, the author's life has been dominated by three things: words, wind and women.

Return to the Sea is his fifth published book, and he has written numerous magazine articles. Hence, the 'words'. The 'wind' of course, is the element that enabled him to do four circumnavigations, during which he set a number of sailing records. There were other voyages, too, and all told, his adventures were on five different boats Egregious, Chidiock,Tichborne1 and 11, Resurgam and The Hawke of Tuonela.

And the third 'W' in his alliteration? Well, as he weaves his fascinating tale through the early days and brings you up-to-date, I lost count of the number of wives, let alone 'women'; but it did seem to just about equal the number of circumnavigations!

In the main, this book is about his last round the world shot, on The Hawke, and about Carol, the lady who did much of the trip with him before returning to Boston to set up her won business, but is still very much a part of his life.

Together, they cross oceans, and explore some of the ports of Portugal, the Azores and South America, before heading for South Africa and what the author calls "One of my favourite cities". Of course it is Cape Town. And while the boat is being overhauled he and Carol hop on the Blue Train, visit the Kruger Park, see the Drakensberg, drive down the Garden Route and generally do in a couple of weeks as much as many in South Africans do in a lifetime. Webb has much praise for Royal Cape Yacht Club, and for the people he met. He also has some canny observation on a land he had first visited some years earlier.

It is at this point that Carol goes home, and Webb sails on to complete the circumnavigation in Sydney. It is a story that will hold the reader's interest, not only for the content, but for the easy going, colorful manner in which it is told. --Sailing & Yachting (SA), January 2006:

About the Author

Webb Chiles is one of the world's most experienced sailors. He has completed four circumnavigations, set two world records, and was the first American to round Cape Horn single-handed. He has written dozens of newspaper and magazine articles as well as several books, including A Single Wave (Sheridan House, 1999). When not traveling, he lives in Boston.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 206 pages
• Publisher: Sheridan House; 1St Edition edition (October 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574091808
• ISBN-13: 978-1574091809
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,396,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Briefly in the Third Person:

Webb Chiles is a writer and a sailor, an artist of words and wind. Married six times, he has lived with passion on land as well as water and at one time liked to believe himself an artist of women, too, but this may have been a delusion. As a writer: six books and hundreds of articles published. As a sailor: five circumnavigations and several world records; and long ago he became the first American to sail alone around Cape Horn. He wanted to live an epic life. Perhaps he has. Read his books and decide for yourself.


At Greater Length in the First:

Twice in my life I have lost everything.

Once the loss occurred over a period of years while I was sailing CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE, an 18' open boat, west around the world. When I was falsely imprisoned as a spy in Saudi Arabia in 1982, I did not own a single object, not a teaspoon or a t-shirt, that I had owned when I sailed from San Diego, California, in 1978.

The second loss was as complete but took place during a single night in 1992 when I sank the 36' sloop, RESURGAM, off the coast of Florida, following which I floated and swam for 26 hours and was carried more than 125 miles by the Gulf Stream before reaching an anchored fishing vessel.

I mention this only partly in pride that I lived on the edge and risked everything for so long--as I once wrote: almost dying is a hard way to make a living--but also because it explains omissions. Possessions can usually be replaced, but some of my writing and many photographs were lost and can't be.

"Old men should be explorers." I first read that decades ago in a book by Jan de Hartog, but subsequently came across it in T. S. Eliot's FOUR QUARTETS, which predates Hartog by several decades. I don't know if there is an even earlier source.

Now that I am almost seventy, those words are even more true.

For the past several years I have divided my time between being with Carol, an architect and my wife of sixteen years, in a condominium in Evanston, Illinois, and my 37' sloop, THE HAWKE OF TUONELA, in New Zealand's Bay of Islands. But recently I have been thinking of living on the edge again. "Small" and "age" are edges. So I have just bought a 24' sloop, possibly for my next voyage. Having completed circumnavigations in four successive decades--two in the 00s, I'd like to make it five.

People who know of me at all probably do so as a sailor; but I have always thought of myself as an artist, and I believe that the artist's defining responsibility is to go to the edge of human experience and send back reports. My books are among those reports.

The photo was taken in 1992. That is the way I would like to be remembered.

For more information please visit: www.inthepresentsea.com