The Long Way

This is simply the best sailing book ever, and very dangerous for anyone who has a settled life, but wonders if there might not be more. Resist this, if you can:"My real log is written in the sea and sky; the sails talking with the rain and the stars amid the sounds of the sea, the silences full of secret things between my boat & me, like the times I spent as a child listening to the forest talk."It is also a story about a competitive man who had the prize in his hands (winning a non-stop, solo around the world race), thought about all the cameras, newsmen, Brigitte Bardot in attendance et al, and decided to just keep on sailing.Oh yes, and the book is chock-full of extremely good advice about blue-water sailing. I wish I had a below-decks steering station with a plexiglass dome to look through...

Mr. Boatner obviously missed the whole essence of Moitessier's rendering of his experience. This is not about litterature, but about the real experience of a man whose mind wanders as his trip progresses. The style is in perfect harmony with what happens in Moitessier's mind, as the ocean gets to him and reality fades in the wake of his ship.

On my first reading, this book stirred my soul and shook me out of a decade of spiritual lethargy. On the second reading, I set about learning how to sail. On the third reading I bought my own 25' yacht. Now, many reads (and many months)later, and ready to begin my first solo passage, I am developing my own love affair with the sea. Thank you Bernard!

I've been reading and re-reading this book for over 10 years now, and the main reason is because of the peace and tranquility it gives to me. Every time I open the book, I set sail on Joshua as a solo sailor and experence what the "gods" of the open sea give so freely. Bernard was truly a man who knew how to deal with the inner man and fully experence all of life around him one day at a time. There will never be another Bernard Moitessier

I first read "The Long Way" back in the 70's and have revisited the book five or six times. It is my favorite among works of this genre. I think Bernard captures the many moods of his epic voyage - the joy, the fear, the exhilaration, the lonliness, the spiritual peaks and valleys - in language that is both rich and moving. The book also contains a good technical section in the back for those intersted in the practical side of simple self-sufficient ocean voyaging. This is a classic written by a sailor with the soul of a poet.