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Imperfect Passage: A Sailing Story of Vision, Terror, and Redemption Hardcover – June 5, 2012

4.2 out of 5 stars 43 customer reviews

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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing; 1 edition (June 5, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1616087285
  • ISBN-13: 978-1616087289
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 6.3 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,531,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
...no wind is favorable." That is a quote from Lucius Annaeus Seneca and seems fitting given how I felt after completing Imperfect Passage. I remain an amateur sailor (which is a dangerous thing) but truly appreciate sailing's call and literature's romance with it. Author Cosgrove's later life crisis can be summarized as a clumsy and inept stab at adventure. I found it uncomfortable with an ongoing array of head-scratching decisions...exactly the opposite of a well planned sailing voyage. There are doses of humour based on the characters that show up as crew but even that was thin entertainment and it concludes abruptly and on a surprise downer. The book started and ended "in irons" and I feel sorry for his family who must have thought their patriarch's brain was 'luffing'.
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Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
An entertaining story but I was put off in the beginning when he described how old he would be in 18 years and the math was off by four years. That made you wonder what else was off. It was also annoying having him convert knots in every reference. However, if you like blue water adventures, you will enjoy this book.
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Format: Hardcover
BOOK LOOK 550 revised

by Will Kilkeary

Imperfect Passage, by Michael Cosgrove

I think this is the most annoying book I've ever read! When this owner of an insurance agency turned sixty, he decided he had to do something macho to make his mark in the world, and after discounting a number of things, decides to solo sail around the world. Not daunted by the fact that most of his sailing has been on inland lakes, that he has never been out of the sight of land, and doesn't have a boat to do it in; he spends $111,000.00 on an 18 year old cutter rigged ketch ( 2 masts and 4 sails, way too much for one man, any man).. He then spends another $100,000.00 on 2 auto-pilots, and every other fancy gadget so the boat will do the sailing for him. Lets skip the part about how he can't sail the boat and hires people to sail with him on this solo sail and go to the end where he finally has to sail the boat for 5 days by himself and decides to quit( rationalizing all the time how grand he is for doing so.) He then takes a friend out for a sail in Australia , and runs over another sail boat, one who clearly has the right-of way. Then his rationalizations really take off: the other sailor is from New Jersey so he is automatically a mob hood, the other sailor should have avoided being hit ( even though the other boats sails completely blocked their view, and his sails were on the other side giving him a clear view), When the other guy offers him a settlement, he again considers him a crook and skips the country to avoid paying. So here is a guy who breaks the laws of almost every country he visits, pulls a hit and run, and then brags about it in his book. I wont even mention all his annoying writing habits.

It's the worst misrepresentation of sailing and sailing etiquette ever written and should have been named "Imperfect Passenger" though that's far too mild. My only hope is that the jerk will be on a plane that gets diverted to Australia.
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Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I want my time and money back. Absolute waste of time. A bizarre mix of self pity and shallow braggadocio. Awfully written, very little about actually sailing. Nothing to be gotten out of this book at all. And why must you convert knots to mph as an aside each and every time you mention a speed? Ludicrous. Do not waste your time.
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Format: Kindle Edition
I love sailing stories, and was excited to read this.....not much of a sailing story here. Yes, there are a few stories about blue water passages, but just as it seems the on-water action will get interesting, the author skips over much description of the experience only to dwell on his feelings resulting from the experience. The book seems to be far more focused on the emotional state of the author - interesting perhaps to psychology students, but less so to sailors who are, in general, a stalwart bunch.

I appreciate the author's confessional, but his life story (modest origin, business success, oceanfront home, beautiful wife (5th such, if I recall correctly?), great kids, etc.) is not terribly unique or interesting, doesn't endear him to the reader, and the recounting of it seems to be far more for his benefit than for the reader's. He essentially admits as much in the later chapters, realizing that his desire for a "legacy" and the admiration of later generations is misplaced -- only to go on further with his self-absorbed prose. Had he realized that the hunger inside him was actually driven by this self-absorption, he could have saved us all a lot of time, but I suppose promises had been made to publishers.

That said, and ignoring a few editing issues, the sentences are well written. I think the author writes well, and should try writing about something other than himself.
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Format: Kindle Edition
Poorly written, in desperate need of professional text proofing. The story line should have, could have carried yet the obnoxious vulgarity over rode the possible. We're it hardback I'd list it at .50 in the next neighborhood garage sale.
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Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Many people dream of doing things like this but few ever actually set sail. This is a Great Story of a man past his prime taking on the high seas. Once I started reading I couldn’t put it down.
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Format: Paperback
The author describes in vivid terms his "misadventrues" at sea replete with daunting physical and emotional struggles but with a blend of humor , love and "old fashioned" common sense. I was immediately intrigued by his vision of sailing around the world but had no idea of what challenges would lie before him as his story unfolds. A truly engrossing and exciting page turner.
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