Read more
Zusatztext “Gripping. . . . Not merely a collection of tales of derring-do; at its strongest it delivers a full-blooded sense of lives lived far beyond the comfort zone most of us have so meticulously constructed.”– The New York Sun “Invaluable for introducing the curious to the subject and some classic books about it. On to mountains! deserts! jungles! the sky! the ocean deeps! the bowels of the earth! and beyond!”– Library Journal “A simply marvelous collection. Whether in the urgent prose of those who sail more than they write! or the gifted language of great natural narrators! this book throbs. Sometimes the waves are so close that you recoil; at other moments you ache with the pain of the sacrifices to the sea. Read all the dozen pieces and relish each one–this is blood-hot writing.”–Frank Delaney! author of Simple Courage and Tipperary Informationen zum Autor Cecil Kuhne is the editor of two previous anthologies on adventure travel, On the Edge and The Armchair Paddler. A former whitewater rafting guide, he has also written nine books about rafting, kayaking, and canoeing. He lives in Dallas. Klappentext "The wind was blowing at hurricane strength-sixty-five knots and over-and increasing in the gusts to eighty knots. His boat was surfing on waves as high as a sixty-foot! six-storey building. . .Each wave that struck choked and froze him! the icy water working its way down inside his survival suit.” —from Close to the Wind by Pete Goss In Near Death on the High Seas! Cecil Kuhne collects some of the most terrifying and astounding experiences of sailors confronting the awesome! raw power of the sea. These tales-filled with everyday heroes and survivors-comprise a riveting and often breathtaking collection of extraordinary stories that show the terrible ferocity of the untamable ocean. Also featuring: • Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki- the historic and celebrated journey of the Kon-Tiki as it journeys across the Pacific. • Steve Callahan's Adrift- a solo sailor loses his boat in the Atlantic must survive in a five-foot life raft for 76 days! fighting off sharks with a makeshift spear. • Francis Chischester's 'Gipsy Moth' Circles The World-the stirring story of a one man's solo sail around the globe at age 65. • John Rousmaniere's Fastnet! Force 10-in one of the worst sailing tragedies in history! a massive rescue operation takes place amidst sixty-knot winds and forty-foot breaker waves. Adrift Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea Steven Callahan Log of Napoleon Solo It is late at night. The fog has been dense for days. Napoleon Solo continues to slice purposefully through the sea toward the coast of England. We should be getting very close to the Scilly Isles. We must be very careful. The tides are large, the currents strong, and these shipping lanes heavily traveled. Both Chris and I are keeping a sharp eye out. Suddenly the lighthouse looms on the rocky isles, its beam high off the water. Immediately we see breakers. We're too close. Chris pushes the helm down and I trim the sails so that Solo sails parallel to the rocks that we can see. We time the change in bearing of the lighthouse to calculate our distance away--less than a mile. The light is charted to have a thirty-mile range. We are fortunate because the fog is not as thick as it often is back in our home waters of Maine. No wonder that in the single month of November 1893 no fewer than 298 ships scattered their bones among these rocks. The next morning, Solo eases herself out of the white fog and over the swells in a light breeze. She slowly slips into the bay in which Penzance is nestled. The sea pounds against the granite cliffs of Cornwall on the southwest coast of England, which has claimed its own vast share of ships and lives. The jaws of the bay hold many dangers, such as the pile of rocks know...
