Coming about: A Family Passage at Sea

My family currently owns the boat written about in the book, the Hei Tiki II, so it was interesting to see some of the voyages of the family and the boat. Susan writes as a woman who has almost no sailing experiance thrust into a long voyage at sea. She recounts how the various experiances changed her, her family and saved her shaky marriage. She tells how a long time at sea effects the attitudes of the people involved. At first it is easy to feel sorry for her, having no boating experiance but being coerced into it by her husband, but it quickly shows you the enormous strength this woman must have to cope. The tales of exotic ports of call, friends gained and lost, and stormy seas are all secondary to the story of the family. The book is subtitled "A Family's Passage At Sea," and this is what the book is really about, the family.

I anticipated a literate traveloge (which is certainly there!), but indeed recieved much more. Ms. Hitchcock's insights into the rigurs of family traveling are among the best I've read. I enjoyed this book on so many levels, it is hard to pin them all down. Take it from a stranger...this is a book well worth the read. P.S. I bought two extra copies and sent them to friends with young kids in the hopes of sending them off someday.

It is rather easy to find good travel books about fascinating sailing destinations, but it is something special to be given honest insights into the family dynamics of a sailing crew that, over time, became a bonded team. This is a delightful book incorporating family, sailing and travel.

I came across this book quite by accident, but once I picked it up I could not put it down. New and experienced sailors will smile and sometimes wince with recognition at the challenges the Hitchcock family faces. Intensely honest and beautifully written, the author confronts us with the challenges of our voyages - whether it be through the Carribean, our marriages, or our time as parents and teachers. I have recommended this book to friends and family, sailors and landlubbers alike. There is so much truth packed in these pages, that I am sure each time I read it - and there is no doubt I will read it many times - I will glean fresh insights from its pages. Thank you, Susan Tyler Hitchcock, for this unexpected delight!

I don't usually read an entire book in one sitting, but I found I could not put this one down. Somehow, I felt compelled to make the entire journey--3,400 miles--at once. Susan Tyler Hitchcock has the voice of a poet. The lyrical beauty with which she describes her family's changing dynamic is delicious to savor. She develops her "characters"--her husband, their new friends--believably and fully. And the detailed discussions of life on a sailboat--the 24-hour-a-day attention that it takes, the canned meals, the cabin fever, the storms--made me feel I was there with her. Hitchcock is a woman with a rich inner life. Almost anyone could write a memorable book about the Caribbean scenery. But Susan Tyler Hitchcock's voyage is an inner one, and far more challenging to depict. I am grateful to have been invited along.