Godforsaken Sea: Racing the World's Most Dangerous Waters

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Godforsaken Sea is the hair-raising account of the world's most demanding and dangerous sailing race: around the world, one sailor, one boat, no stops, no assistance. This is the story of the 1996-1997 Vendee Globe, a grueling four-month circumnavigation of the globe in the most dangerous of all waters, the Southern Ocean. Through the eyes and experiences of the fourteen men and two women who began the race, author Derek Lundy harnesses the hurricane-force winds, the six-story waves, the icebergs, and the deafening noise in an effort to expose the spirit of the men and women who push themselves to the outer limits of human endeavor - even if it means never returning home. You'll meet the gallant Brit who spends days beating back against the worst seas to save a fellow racer; the Frenchman who bothers to salvage only a bottle of champagne from his broken and sinking boat; the sailor who comes to love the albatross that trails her for months, naming it Bernard; the veteran who calmly keeps smoking his cigarette as his boat capsizes; and the Canadian who, hours before he disappears forever, dispatches this message: If you drag things out too long here, you're sure to come to grief.

SYNOPSIS

An account of the dangerous 1996-1997 Vendée Globe race, a four month circumnavigation of the Southern Ocean by single-person sailboats. The author tells the story of the race in which one sailor died and many came close to dying from the point of view of the sailors and describes the physical and psychological dangers they faced. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Lance Morrow - Time

Godforsaken Sea is one of the best books ever written about sailing... in this case the extreme sailing required to go around the world solo in the toughtest of all sailboat races, the 1996-97 Vendee Globe. It gives readers the adrenaline rush of what Lundy calls "apocalyptic sailing."

William Buckley - National Review

That terrible race with its hideous suffering deserved a poet, and found one in Derek Lundy.

NY Times Book Review

In Lundy's account, you are swept up....[He] sketches [the] incidents early on in the book, then makes us wait, filling in the details of the stories along the way.

William F. Buckley Jr. - National Review

That terrible race with its hideous suffering deserved a poet, and found one in Derek Lundy.

William Buckley Jr. - National Review