Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum

8/10

I read this one a little over two weeks ago. And with this post, I am officially all caught up on posting the books that I have read. Some said it couldn't be done. It's been decades since I've been caught up. Hopefully, moving forward, I can post my book here as soon as I finish it. And maybe now I can make updates to my baseball stadiums blog. But back to the matter at hand. This was a fun book. Slocum details his solo trip around the world. The first person to ever sail around the world alone. He did this from 1895 to 1898. It was a very fascinating read. He departs from Massachusetts and crosses across the Atlantic to Gibraltar, with some stops here and there on islands along the way. Interestingly, he was planning to sail through the Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez canal to the Red Sea and out into the Indian Ocean, but he got too worried about pirates and decided to reverse course entirely and cross back over the Atlantic and go around the world the other way through the Strait of Magellan at the bottom of Argentina, which seemed like the most dangerous part of the entire trip. He had some close calls with some natives down there, and interestingly had to re-enter it and try again when his first attempt to exit failed due to stormy seas. His ability and willpower to make on-the-fly adjustments and massive decisions is actually very impressive. He then crosses the Pacific, again stopping at some islands along the way, including the Robinson Crusoe island in the Juan Fernandez islands. He again changes plans and reverses course when he decides to not go around Australia to the south, but instead the north. He eventually makes his way around Cape Town South Africa, across the Atlantic again for the third time, and all the way back to the same spot where he first departed. It was interesting that much of the book is actually about his time spent on land at his various stops. Massive months' long trips across the seas are often covered in a few paragraphs or less. He had his tiny little boat so well built and prepared that it largely steered itself while he sat in the cabin and read books all day long. He is a good writer and quite funny at parts. He also wrote this book in such a way where none of it came off as boastful or arrogant, often going out of his way to draw attention to his mistakes, which made the book more enjoyable to read. A part of me is quite jealous of people like him who got to experience and see so much of the world. I knew nothing about this adventure, so I was very glad to have read this one.