Sea Change: Alone Across the Atlantic in a Wooden Boat

by Peter Nichols

Overview

Many people go to the sea in boats, but few of them write as movingly about the experience as Peter Nichols does in this enthralling meditation on the wonders of sailing, the mystery of the sea, and the ebbs and flows of love. With only a sextant, his own instincts as a seasoned sailor, and a boat full of memories of his foundering marriage, Nichols sets out alone from England for Maine, where he plans to sell his beloved twenty-seven-foot sailboat, Toad. Halfway across the ocean, his boat springs a leak and his voyage becomes a desperate struggle to survive.

Filled with intelligence, bravery and humor, Sea Change is a thrilling adventure story. It is a classic tale of a man struggling to come to terms with his reckless spirit, his highest hopes, and his broken dreams.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493052004
Publisher:	Globe Pequot Publishing
Publication date:	08/15/2020
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Peter Nichols is the author of A Voyage for Madmen, the story of the 1968 solo race around the world, and the recent Final Voyage: A Story of Arctic Disaster and One Fateful Whaling Season.

Table of Contents

1. England
2. Falmouth to Fayal
3. Horta
4. Fayal to 36°08’ North; 53°12’ West
5. A Short Weird Cruise to Galveston
6. Galveston. And Beyond the Infinite

Editorial Reviews

Plenty of thrills for the armchair traveller...captivating.

People Magazine

A tale leavened with humor, keen observation, and old-fashioned sailing drama.

Outside

An alarming account, told with remarkable calmness ... that should sweep away even the most resolute landlubber.

Time

Nichols is marvelous at describing the feelings of awe and loneliness that the sea inspires.

The New York Times Book Review

An alarming account, told with remarkable calmness ... that should sweep away even the most resolute landlubber.

Time

A tale leavened with humor, keen observation, and old-fashioned sailing drama.

Outside

"Plenty of thrills for the armchair traveller...captivating". — People "An alarming account, told with remarkable calmness ... that should sweep away even the most resolute landlubber". — Time "A tale leavened with humor, keen observation, and old-fashioned sailing drama". — Outside "Nichols is marvelous at describing the feelings of awe and loneliness that the sea inspires". — The New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

A little wooden sailboat, a raft of memories, and the wide blue Atlantic carry sailor Nichols from England to Maine, almost, in this earnest, reflective chronicle.

Nichols quits his soured marriage and takes to the sea, there to feel better about himself, to do something well for a change. His self-appointed challenge is a single-handed sail across the North Atlantic in a shallow-draft, motorless, 27-foot sailboat by the name of Toad, a boat in which he and his wife had recently made the trip in the opposite direction. Nichols is a likable soul—impecunious, living by his wits, a sailor's sailor who navigates by sextant and instinct, adapting to the dictates of sea and sky. Meteorologically, the weather is with him; emotionally, he finds choppy seas: The bust-up of his marriage plagues him, memories insistently emerge—the more so when he discovers his wife's five-volume diary and flips through its pages. The diaries afford Nichols the opportunity to reminisce about his vagabond years with his wife, sailing in the Virgin Islands and in European waters, always on a shoestring, always bickering. While his inner journey is in no way as tedious as it might have been, it is a relief when Nichols snaps into the present and takes a look around. He has a knack for rendering his landfalls—the Scilly Islands and the Azores—in sharp relief, and a way of making his voyage feel like something out of time: Nothing more than wind drives his boat (remember, this is the North Atlantic, where a motor often comes in real handy) and reckoning is an art, not a digital readout.

Though Toad springs a major leak and must be abandoned before reaching its destination, one comes away with the feeling that Nichols has indeed acquitted himself well.

Kirkus Reviews

A heartbreaking and harrowing sea tale... Nichols has (written) something wonderful.

|Los Angeles Times

Nichols is marvelous at describing the feelings of awe and loneliness that the sea inspires... In his understated telling of the story, he never seeks your sympathy. He just breaks your heart.

The New York Review Of Books

A heartbreaking and harrowing sea tale... Nichols has (written) something wonderful.

Los Angeles Times