"Little Wing": Eastabout the Southern Oceans

The author shares more than a little in his exploits with two other intrepid adventurers, H W Tilman of "High Mountains and Cold Seas" fame (J R L Andersons celebrated biography) and French solo sailor Bernard Moitessier, who sailed his steel ketch "Joshua" to fame in the 1968 Golden Globe Race. Raud OBriens book starts with his own mental and physical resurrection following a terrible rock-climbing accident which left him unconscious for eight days and paralysed down one side. An architect by profession, OBrien chronicles his recovery without the aid of the medical profession, but through the sports he loves - sailing and rock- climbing. Little Wing is the name of the 10m(33ft) steel cutter he designed, built and sailed eastabout through the Southern Ocean, from Sydney and south of all five Great Capes in 1990-1. Remarkably, these days, OBrien(41) set out with no means of communicating with the outside world beyond line of sight, let alone an engine, liferaft, satellite navigation, radar or weatherfax. His book, which describes his "ultimate voyage," and his determined fightback to an active life, has a compelling narrative that holds you as firmly as a climbers grip on granite, and yet is full of hidden depths and eloquent descriptions. Paul Gelder, Features Ed. Yachting Monthly, U.K., September 1997