Overview
Main description
Big adventures on the high seas—from one of the greatest seafaring writers of our age
Hal Roth’s vivid, authentic tales of the sea have riveted readers around the world for forty years. Here, in one volume, are three of his classic sea stories, each one a white-knuckled, rail-down voyage into the unknown.
A hard-working San Francisco husband and wife abandon their jobs, their security, and, some would say, their sanity to sail their 35-foot sloop to Japan and back—the long way! Over the next nineteen months, they discover exotic islands, fascinating people, and a whole new way of life.
A few years later these intrepid voyagers decide to try their luck against Cape Horn, but they will need a lot more than luck to survive the vicious storms, violent seas, and perilous shores of the world’s most dangerous stretch of water.
Then nine courageous sailors accept a challenge to do what has never been done before: to race alone, in a small sailboat, around the world—nonstop. Only one will complete the race; seven will be forced to withdraw, and one will simply disappear.
“Roth writes with grace, humor, and poetic insight about the vastness and beauty of the ocean.”—Library Journal
“By all means read all of Hal Roth you can find.”—Practical Sailor
“Roth’s books about his life at sea, including Two on a Big Ocean and Two Against Cape Horn, are universally listed among the most influential sailing books ever published.”—SpinSheet
“Roth can charm you out of your armchair.”—Kirkus
Table of contents
Two on a Big Ocean1. An Idea2. The Long Crossing3. So Lofty and Green4. The People of the Sea5. Everybody's Paradise6. Where Are the Cooks?7. The Smallest Island8. The Heart of Polynesia9. Twice Adopted10. The Back Door to Yesterday11. Close to Shipwreck12. The Porpoise Is Dead, the Whale Is Sunk13. A Large Outrigger Has Been Sighted14. Where Are You, Magellan?15. A Sail in Japan16. Are the Aleutians Cold?17. Gales, Totems, and EaglesAppendix: A Few Notes on WhisperNotesTwo Against Cape HornMaps1. Where Do Ideas Come From?2. A Change of Wind3. A Rustle of Fabric4. The Fjord in the Mountains5. Black Hulls and Shellfish6. Who Was Anna Pink?7. Condors and Shipwrecks8. Strong Winds9. Shipwreck10. Salvage11. A Giant Repair12. South Again14. Final Triumph NotesThe Longest RaceIllustrationsThe Nine ContestantsBeaufort Wind Scale1. Without Stopping2. The Early Starters3. Sharks and Giant Yachts4. The Middle Starters5. Different Captains6. The Late Starters7. What Do They Do All Day?8. Capsize9. Oysters and Pheasant10. Collision at Cape Agulhas11. A View of Death12. The Impractical Sailor13. "Come On God"14. South from Trindade15. Across the Indian Ocean16. The Documented Liar17. A Hell of a Prospect18. "Nasty Hissing Seas"19. A Slice of His Soul20. On to Cape Horn21. The Gentle Philosopher22. The Battered Trimaran23. Back to the South Atlantic24. Homeward Bound25. A Separate Peace26. Meeting with Himself27. Valiant to the End28. The Winner29. The Loser30. The Last WordBibliography
Author comments
Hal Roth has written eight books about
his sailing adventures and two how-to books.
Back cover copy
Taste the salt spray. Watch the green water swirling down your leeward deck. Hear the cries of seabirds skimming wave tops thousands of miles from land. To dip into the pages of The Hal Roth Seafaring Trilogy is to throw open the doors and windows of your imagination on a vast, wild seascape, where any adventure is possible.
Hal Roth is the Homer of our generation, a wandering storyteller who for years has sailed distant oceans in small boats. The tales he brings back are all the more incredible because they are true, and three of his all-time classics are gathered here, for the first time, between one set of covers.
A journalist before he was a voyager, Roth combines a journalist’s powers of observation and flinty realism with the poetic insights of a long-distance sailor and a graceful phrasing all his own. His utterly distinctive voice can be confused with no other nautical storyteller. He hides vast stores of seagoing knowledge in simple descriptions. Sailors are advised to read each story twice: first for the pleasure of a great adventure, then for a wealth of insights on overcoming adversity at sea.
In Two on a Big Ocean, we accompany Hal and his wife, Margaret, on their first major sea trek from San Francisco to Japan by way of the South Pacific islands, and back via the Aleutians, Alaska, and Canada. Hal’s flowing narrative and vivid photographs reveal the many ways in which this dream passage became a voyage of discovery. The two sailors learned to cope with everything from equipping their 35-foot sloop Whisper for a voyage of nineteen months to the perils of scalpel-sharp coral reefs and opaque fog. Roth’s gritty, authentic narrative underscores his singular ability to explore the quintessential aspects of the human condition as revealed in a small boat at sea.
Not content with surviving and thriving through 19,000 unpredictable miles at sea, Hal and Margaret decided to test their mettle against the most daunting stretch of water any sailor can face. Two Against Cape Horn tells two stories: a delightful tale of the couple’s pioneering cruise down the Chilean coast, followed by a harrowing account of turmoil, shipwreck, and recovery in savage, storm-tossed seas.
In The Longest Race, Hal delivers a taut, crisply written account of the greatest sea adventure ever undertaken: the first solo, nonstop race around the world in small sailboats. Of the nine men who undertook the challenge, only one would finish; all the others would drop out—or worse. Drawing from the sailors’ firsthand accounts and his own understanding gained as a contestant in two later round-the-world solo races, Hal zeroes in on the essence of this competition: the ability to withstand a barrage of physical, mental, and emotional rigors over hundreds of days alone at sea.
Here are three classic tales of crossing huge oceans in small boats, three irresistible invitations to escape a winter night or a fogbound anchorage for the wild heart of a distant sea.
Hal Roth and his wife, Margaret, have crossed all of the world’s oceans and sailed to a thousand foreign ports. Hal has also raced twice around the world single-handed in the BOC Challenges of 1986-87 and 1990-91. A magazine writer and photographer (over 400 articles), Hal has written eight books about his adventures and two how-to books, including How to Sail Around the World, also available from International Marine.
Big adventures on the high seas—from one of the greatest seafaring writers of our age
Hal Roth’s vivid, authentic tales of the sea have riveted readers around the world for forty years. Here, in one volume, are three of his classic sea stories, each one a white-knuckled, rail-down voyage into the unknown.
A hard-working San Francisco husband and wife abandon their jobs, their security, and, some would say, their sanity to sail their 35-foot sloop to Japan and back—the long way! Over the next nineteen months, they discover exotic islands, fascinating people, and a whole new way of life.
A few years later these intrepid voyagers decide to try their luck against Cape Horn, but they will need a lot more than luck to survive the vicious storms, violent seas, and perilous shores of the world’s most dangerous stretch of water.
Then nine courageous sailors accept a challenge to do what has never been done before: to race alone, in a small sailboat, around the world—nonstop. Only one will complete the race; seven will be forced to withdraw, and one will simply disappear.
“Roth writes with grace, humor, and poetic insight about the vastness and beauty of the ocean.”—Library Journal
“By all means read all of Hal Roth you can find.”—Practical Sailor
“Roth’s books about his life at sea, including Two on a Big Ocean and Two Against Cape Horn, are universally listed among the most influential sailing books ever published.”—SpinSheet
“Roth can charm you out of your armchair.”—Kirkus
