Customer Reviews

Alone through the Roaring Forties (The Sailor's Classics #5) (Sailor's Classics Series)

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An Argentine legend of the sea, deeply loved by all south american sailors. This book tells of his second voyage on board Legh II against the roaring forties alone, and all the things he had to endure. Bernard Moitissier used to keep this book under his pillow and referred to it many times. A must read for everyone, specially for overseas cruisers

This is currently my favorite book I have ever read about sailing around the world. It's entertaining, informatative, and most important, I felt like I was right there riding with him on the boat.

It struck me as a very honest account without a lot of making things sound more impressive than they actually are. He talks a bit about getting sick on board, but he accepts that as just part of the challenge. He also talks about getting a tiny bit careless after going so far around the world, and getting put ashore in what must have appeared to be a "novice" mistake. At that point, he was ANYTHING but a novice. It's just the kind of thing that might happen to any one of us, which is exactly what makes this book so appealing to me.

If you want to escape from your land-locked life for a few hours with a good book, consider this one strongly. The chapters are generally fairly short, and the pages turn quickly, because he really draws you in with his writing style. His description of his experience with the waves in the South Pacific still has me spellbound.

I will read this book again and again over the years.

This story is as spectacular as it is unique. Who else would even consider this adventure now, not to mention then? No one. The story of the adventure of sailing in such conditions is well worth reading. As an added value Vito just seems to have a great capacity for making friends and telling the story. His capacity to endure is remarkable, but also his skills and seamanship are truly outstanding. Even in this modern world of computers and electronic navigational aids there is much to be learned about boats and seamanship from a person who sailed a 32' boat in the worst of conditions, and did it smartly, without all those modern aids. I recommend this book for the wonderful story it tells about the sea and the person. Certainly a classic of solo sailing stories.

Surely Dumas must be one of the most charming of all sailors.
His account of circling the world the hard way
is modest, intimate, and filled with love and joy.
If you want to know what it means to love the sea
and to sail the world alone in a small boat,
you must read these three authors:
Slocum, Guzzwell, and Dumas.

Vito Dumas circumnavigated the world with only three stops in the 1940's. However, the "Forties" in the title is not about years - it's about sailing at forty degrees latitude. "The "roaring winds" were making their weight felt. The English have given them this name because, apart from their violence, they have a peculiar sound not unlike that of a saw cutting wood. They rule the waves in 40 degrees South, accompanied by low cloud, rain and squalls."
The understated style Dumas has in describing harrowing, life-threatening moments at sea can be tedious. "On the 6th of July my arm was worse. The sea had gone a little, the wind remained very fresh. At 10 o'clock I set down the storm trysail, a sail for foul weather, smaller than the mainsail under which I had set out. This task, hard enough at any time on a moving deck, was doubly awkward with my right arm useless; I was beginning to get worried about the septic condition." Yikes. A useless septic arm in the middle of a stormy ocean? with fresh wind ?? (or as Bob Dylan might put it, 'wild ripping hail'.) The modern reader may get bored with the passive voice and lack of imagery. However, if you can read between the lines his humbling understated account is heroic.