Dove

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Summary: Dove is a very interesting and exciting book of survival.
Review: Dove is an incredible book. A 16 year old going around the world alone! Although he does find a girl named Patti on the way. Patti and Robin eventually married. Robin's parents had different thoughts about the voyage. His mother didn't want Robin to go, she even sent out helicopters to go after the brave minor! Robin's father had a different perspective of the idea. He was all for it! He thought that Robin should foolow his dream, which is sailing. I hope that you have enjoyed my summary. I highly recommend the book to kids 11 and older. Anyone younger might not understand. I hope that you read the book Dove very soon.

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Summary: Intangible Wealth Found at Journey's End
Review: Lately I've been reading books about great sea adventures, some of which for the second or third time. Among them are Robin Lee Graham's Dove, the story of his journey around the world in a 24 foot sloop begun when he was only sixteen. Also, Joshua Slocum's classic adventure Sailing Alone Around the World. Just now I'm reading Apsley Cherry-Garard's The Worst Journey In the World, named by National Geographic last year as one of the greatest adventure stories ever written. I am drawn to this genre because of my work and travels in more than 80 countries and my journey around the world in 1999, most of the way as a lone passenger aboard a modern freighter. It is to Robin Lee Graham's credit that his book is now still in print for 31 years and that it is among the classics recommended in home schooling for young adults. In the last chapter of the book, still uncertain of his future, he writes that he and his young wife, Patti, begin to read the Bible together: "Our finding a belief in God - becoming Christians - was a slow thing.... We want to work out our lives in the way God intended us to. In reading the Bible together we were fascinated by the prophecies made two thousand years and more ago, prophecies which seemed to be coming true, like the Jews returning to their own country. We have no idea where these new thoughts and ideas and practices will take us.... But we are open to whatever direction God will give us. Our belief is simple. It is the belief that so many of our own generation are discovering - a belief that God isn't dead as some of the older generation have told us. In a world that seems to be going crazy we are learning that Jesus showed men the only way they should live - the way we were meant to live." Graham's voyage brought him immense intangible wealth -- a companion for life and the wisdom of discovering a Shepherd for all eternity. Highly recommended. ...

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Summary: A book can change your life
Review: My mother gave me this book 2 months after starting sailing in a tiny boat age 11. I had no idea aboat ocean sailing and had never left the British Isles. Robin inspired me. From that moment on although I hadn't realised it I was following a different path. Now 15 years later I have left the office behind and work as a professional sailor on a tropical island.

Yes, Dove is written in a simple style, but that shouldn't detract from your reading pleasure. Robin paints wonderful pictures - you just let your imagination fill in the spaces.

Parents: I recommend passing this to your children, just be aware of what may happen!

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Summary: A love story and lots of sailing
Review: Years ago, when I was growing up, I read the account of Robin Lee Graham as the young man who sailed around the world alone, and also got married along the way, in three installments of the National Geographic, circa 1965-1970. These articles so affected me that I also wanted to sail around the world. However, as I read this book it soon became apparent to me that this book is also an account of a true life love story, between Robin and Patti, both with simple values and needs, in sharp contrast to most people who are primarily concerned with money and social status. They were deep in love and would, and did, do anything for each other.

Robin alone, and later with Patti, sailed to some of the most beautiful places on Earth, I think they must have enough memories for 20 lifetimes. The writing style makes you feel that you are right there with them.

The pictures included in this book are poor black and white, but as I remember, the National Geographic articles included excellent color photographs, it would do you well to find those issues.

As for me, I never did get to sail around the world, a little thing called life intervened, the grind and all that! I did take a sailing class through a local university in the summer of '77, even got an "A" in the class, but this pales in comparison to the daring sailing of Robin Graham. Sometimes, during trips to Florida I gaze at ocean-going yachts at wharfs, and yes, the dream is still alive, thanks to Dove

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Summary: Great book. (Victoria from Argentina)
Review: Dove is an absolutely encouraging book about a 16 year old boy (just like me) that sailed around the world in a tiny sailboat. It is not only a book for people who fancy sailing, in fact it is rather a love story than a traveller's account, because he meets a girl (Patti) in the Fiji Islands, falls in love with her and marries in Durban, Africa. However, the story is fascinating, motivating and vivid (you can realize and feel just what Robin was feeling). He accounts the fears he encounters, together with the desperation and harsh loneliness that he struggles against because of the fact that patti wasn't with him during the circumnavigation.
It is a good book that I find quite immature because Robin went into the wild seas not even with a GPS, cell phone or Internet, which now a days we take for granted. All the same, the boy's attitude is a highly positive one, full of bravery and that should serve as an example for the future generations to go.
I've read that in some reviews, the reviewers succesfully contacted Robin Lee Graham. Then, i would really appreciate it if somebody tells me something about his current life.
**I'm sorry for the mistakes, because i'm a Spanish speaker.**

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Summary: Loved it as a teenager
Review: I must have read Dove five times as a teenager. I loved the true life adventure of someone my age. Robin's story increased my love of adventure, sailing and the sea. His search for truth and desire too read all the important books inspired me. I too read the Bible and saw truth, truth that was missing from my dead church background.

Later, I re-read Dove as an adult. I found Robin's life immature and impetuous. But, what did I expect from a California teenager from the 60's? I still appreciate his impact on my life and consider Robin Lee Graham one of my life heros. He has flaws like every human. He overcame them in a way that everyone can learn from. "Home is the Sailor" is a good follow up to fill out his story. Incidentally, as of a couple of years ago, he still lived in Montana.

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Summary: Read at your own risk!
Review: Robin Graham's account of his voyage
around the world in a small boat
is responsible for many a youngster
(and a few not-so-youngsters!)
chucking their jobs and sailing away to paradise.
The stuff of dreams, this voyage is narrated
by a courageous, insightful, and articulate sailor.
You won't be trading this book in
when you visit your local used book store!
It's a keeper.

Rating:
Summary: Dove
Review: I found Dove, a memoir of a 15 year old who travels around the world in a boat, an extremely poor-written, dull book.

Of course memoirs are not the best books on earth, but the author's writing style was dry and immature. For example, Graham uses the word "weird" about three times in one chapter. There is almost no emotion in this book; the author for the better part of Dove tells about where he went, what the scenery was, and about the natives of each country. The only central characters in the story are himself and his young love, Patti. The love story between Robin and Patti seemed to me very drawn-out and surprisingly dull. All the while, the author still could not tell his story in a way that might make me care about him and Patti.

If you are interested in reading a book about a boy's naive, incorrect views of the world and about some so-and-so girl he meets, read this book. If you're interested in something well written, steer clear of this memoir.

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Summary: Dove, by Robin Lee Graham
Review: A very interesting book. I enjoyed the adventure very much, especially the love story. It was somewhat difficult not to see Robin as a spoiled rich kid though. Let's face it, how many fathers could afford to spend $8000 on a boat for a 16 year old in 1967. That was a pretty good fraction of a years salery for a well paid professional at the time.

Still, there's no denying that Robin handled "the rough spots" on his own. I get the impression that Robin was (is) a person that had experienced wealth and rejected it for the freedom that doing without can bring.

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Summary: Great coming-of-age sailing story
Review: A good read for sailors, & would be circumnavigators.