About a year ago, when I was planning a longer trip which we have not yet made, I started to research parachute sea-anchors, as the route I had in mind would take us quite far off shore into some potentially stormy waters. Having established a preference I asked the manufacturer for a reference, which I thought was quite reasonable as I could be staking my life - and those of the crew - on the damn thing. They sent me a short paragraph about the device written Steve Callahan. For those of you who don't know, Steve Callahan has a distinguished sailing CV which encompassed sailing a boat he designed and built himself across the Atlantic, and then making an epic 76 day trip back in the life raft following the loss of the yacht. I am by nature a bit sceptical, and was eager to make sure that the review wasn't just the edited highlights. So I emailed him on the basis of cat look at king. He sent a very gracious and a very helpful reply, which gave me confidence to go ahead an buy the sea anchor - which is a whole other forth coming attraction....
So when I came across his book 'Adrift' I snapped it up.
As far as I know this is no longer in print, but is to my mind one of the keystones of the modern sailing canon; it combines a gripping tale with a wealth of detail which long distance sailors would be wise to commit to memory. Refreshingly for a sailing book, the style it both literate and flowing, and it is clear that his most important asset was fortitude.
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