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Some fathers and sons go fishing together. David and Daniel decide to sail 17,000 miles around Cape Horn. |
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Some fathers and sons go
fishing together. Some play ball. David and Daniel decide to sail
17,000 miles to the sailor's nemesis at the bottom of the world and
back. On this voyage the father relinquishes control, the son
becomes the captain, and before long they are utterly alone, with
only the huge waves of Cape Horn, the unceasing wind, a compass, a
sextant, a pet cat, and the tiny boat they've built together.
Lots of detailed and useful maps, diagrams. Pleasant little summaries of the Cape, its history, its feel, its explorers, and the regular traffic. Many "right on" quotes, touching stories, and wonderful scenes. "The next three hours take about four days. All the lines are tangled, all thirteen feet of the whisker pole swings at me, sails drag through the water. I fall twice. I am filled with a pulsing anticipation of the moment we will hit the beach or some rocky outcrop. I cannot see the land and I do not know where I am on the chart." |
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| "How full of meaning and menace is the
sound of those two words: Cape Horn! What a vast and terrible
cemetery of seamen lies under that eternally boiling sea! ... Lives
there a sailor, who would not have made a Cape Horn passage in his
own small vessel rather than any other voyage in the world?"
Vito Dumas
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