Against the flow

In 2006 when Dee –  this is a bit of a mouthful – sailed around the world solo nonstop against the prevailing winds and currents, I followed her on the Aviva website. Nearly everyday at work I’d visit the site and read the updates, listen to the podcasts and perhaps a watch a video if there was one. I found it fascinating and was hooked on her own adventure.

Unfortunately Dee’s book, Against the flow, didn’t hold my attention in quite the same way at the live event had done. Robin Knox-Johnston, Roger Taylor, Ellen MacArthur – all these people are great authors and I have been riveted to their books cover to cover, and while what Dee achieved was just as impressive as anything the aforementioned had done, she just doesn’t have the same literary craftsmanship.

The book initially took me a long time to read because I picked it up, read a few pages about Dee’s life, then got bored and put it down again. That might sound remarkably harsh, and I don’t want to slate somebody else’s work when it’s unlikely that I could do better, but it was initially tedious to read.

When RKJ or Ellen described their upbringing it was done at the hands of great wordsmiths. They could have probably filled a chapter about painting their living room and it would have been captivating, but Dee is not that kind of author, and that’s in many ways a shame because it distracts from the subject of the book, the actual around the world solo nonstop against the…. you get the idea.

Once you get into the at actual event, the book does become much more interesting. Dee is without doubt a great sailor, and her passion for it starts to show at this point. Gone are the tedious sentences about feeling nervous and having to express one’s self to some random colleague, probably via the medium of tears and blubbing, and out come the energetic, meaningful words like spinnaker, autopilot, storm, and loud bang.

Now the book becomes interesting, but again I felt slightly let down that at every hurdle a call to the shore team was the first port of call. Robin Knox Johnston would have never dreamt of calling up a shore team, he couldn’t have if he wanted to back in 68. No, he would have just kicked it into working again then sat down sit a brandy to appreciate his work. David Lewis of ice bird didn’t call home when his was dismasted. He just got on with it, under jury rig. Overall I still have every respect for what Dee did, and she is still regarded highly in my opinion as a modern (cough – shore team – cough) sailor, but as a writer she fails to meet the same standard.

I certainly don’t regret reading the book, but I probably wouldn’t jump to the bookshelf to grab any future works of hers in a hurry. With that said, I wish her the very best of luck in the Vendee Globe and can’t wait to catch up on the podcasts, where she does hold one’s attention.

Click here to view the book on Amazon