This book was interesting and heartwarming and was very funny at times. However the way it is written doesn't really have a climax to the story which makes it a bit tough to get through at times. However if you are a sailor it's pretty interesting.

Excellent! Loved the story! Will read again!

I read this books moons ago but noticed it on my shelf the other day. I am not a sailor, but I found this book to be a page turner, start to end. Two men, father and son, taking a small sailboat around the tip of South America. Frightening storms and waves...man against the sea...a riveting adventure story.

True story of father/son sailing adventure from New England to S America; good story

non-fiction
Harrowing account of a father and son sailing around Cape Horn in a small sailboat. Great read

Daniel Hays realizó en velero un viaje de 317 días y unas 15.000 millas: de Connecticut a Jamaica, a Panamá y paso al Pacífico por el canal, las islas Galápagos, la isla de Pascua, paso del cabo de Hornos por el estrecho de Drake, las islas Malvinas, escalas en Montevideo, Río de Janeiro, la isla de Antigua y vuelta a casa. En gran parte del viaje lo acompaño su padre, pero también realizó algunos tramos acompañado de amigos y otros en solitario. Resulta una lectura tranquila pero entretenida, aunque quizá le falta un poco de emoción. Como dice el autor, un libro para aquellos capaces de establecer un vínculo tan fuerte con el barco que puede llegar a convertirse en amor y determinación.

I picked this up at the library sale, with the thought that it would be a good Key West vacation read. It didn't fail to deliver. It was a true story of a father and son's trip in a 20' sailboat around Cape Horn. It naturally included frequent nautical terminology in describing this lonesome, ardent trip, yet didn't fail to explain beautifully the often complicated yet closely held relationship that exists between father and son over the course of life.

First, to be honest, I think this is like a 4.8. I love my parents, but living a few feet from one of them for 180 plus days... I don't think so. What a story. Living in San Diego, a big part of my life has been sailing with people who are good at it. I can read a sail and the tell tails and get some good speed, but unfortunately sailing blue water requires much more than the "feel". A very close friend (Jon C) was that other kind of sailor who had the feel and was good enough at all things sailboat to do a solo in a 42 foot boat from SD to San Francisco in the winter.

These two guys, a 50 something father and a mid twenty son, had done some amazing things before this one. From the Northeast to Bermuda in an open sailboat. Oh yeah, this takes some skills.

So if you are really good at something, what do you try? How about doing the Horn (Tierra del Fuelgo, the whole bit) on a 25 foot sailboat without a motor. Each chapter has a quote from some old salt about the sea and what real commitment means. I loved Dana's "Two years before the Mast", so liked this one. " A new specimen of Cape Horn was coming upon us..The sails were stiff and wet, the ropes and rigging covered with snow and sleet, and we ourselves cold and nearly blinded with the violence of the storm" Chapter 3's quote.

The book took the unlikely pair from the hull's purchase thru 2 years of outfitting. They did not take their task lightly. Triple backup and then some. A 25 foot boat with no motor! The structure of the book was no less through. The father and the son trade their perceptions on this epic voyage. Each are not ready to die, but to risk death in order to experience something that for a sailor is Mount Everest without Sherpa's to save your ass.

There are many personal asides that any son or father will appreciate! Do not miss this read.

Every father needs to read this book. If they don't get anything out of this book, well, you're not a father with a son. Period. Heartwarming, gut clenching at times and makes you feel whole as a man throughout. Brilliant.

A bit too "I'm a guy, I'm a guy and this is male bonding" for my taste, but considering it was written in the late 90's that's understandable. The book is a lively account of a father/son trip around the Horn, dumbed down enough that non-sailors like me can enjoy the sheer adventure of the experience. The book suffers seriously from a lack of pictures, though.

I love this book, and I return to it over and over. There's one particular passage about cooking on the boat that I read out loud when friends are gathered for a meal on a boat. It is impossible to get through it without laughing hysterically until tears are streaming down my face. It's that funny.

But it's not just a funny, lighthearted book. What I love about it is the wide range of emotions that it brings to the reader. You don't have to be a sailor to enjoy the relationship between a father and son getting into dangerous, crazy escapades together.

What a lovely book. An insight into sailing and into relationships. I could smell the sea air and feel the confinement of the interior. Told in diary style from twin perspectives.