Synopsis "In Slocum's Wake"
IN SLOCUMS'S WAKE, written for sailors and non-sailors alike, is an autobiographical tale of a hard-won circumnavigation aboard a 43-foot cutter. This story will entice, entrance and inspire the reader whether you intend to embark on your own voyage or just enjoy a good adventure saga. With a primary focus on the remarkable people and places encountered during nearly five years at sea, IN SLOCUM'S WAKE also offers those who are planning their own long-distance off-shore exploit invaluable advice and data about best routes, strategies, stops, services and tricks of the trade. If you have always dreamed of undertaking such a journey, IN SLOCUM'S WAKE will either help you summon the courage to actually take the leap or convince you it's really not worth the risk or trouble you will surely encounter along the watery way. It's impossible to sail around the world without facing some of the most challenging experiences of your life. On the flip side, you will also surely discover the most sublime and exhilarating moments and memories guaranteed to stay with you for the rest of your earthbound days. Nat Warren-White's five-year journey follows many of the same passages and roughly traces much of the route followed by Joshua Slocum who, in the late 1800s, became the first person to sail alone around the world. IN SLOCUM'S WAKE compares the challenges Warren-White faced aboard his South African-built sloop, BAHATI, with those faced by Slocum aboard his 37-foot Chesapeake Bay oyster-fishing vessel, SPRAY . The two boats are similar in design and capability though built more than 100 years apart, one in wood, the other in fiberglass. The two captains are similar in background and stature, though born almost 100 years apart. To both men, navigating the world's oceans came from a similar motivation: "...a natural outcome of [a] love of adventure, [and] of [our] lifelong experience" in, on and around the sea.
