The Water In Between: A Journey at Sea

Rating:
Summary: A dream of sailing comes true
Review: A excellent book, as it is honestly written and does not try to hide behind romtic tales of sailing the peaceful blue ocean... The way Kevin describes his journey is commendable, and can be understood by any traveller. Also helpful to any future sailor are referenes-quotes of other sailors and books. So before you sell the house and buy a boat, read this book first.

Rating:
Summary: Determination and a V-belt
Review: As a "belly scratcher", I was suprised as to how quickly a was sailing alongside Patterson as he recounted his travels. It takes superb writing to transport me from my favorite chair in my living room and plunk me in the middle of the Pacific, enduring both gales and doldrums. I found "The Water in Between" an engaging and thought provoking read. I cannot imagine, even given my failed relationships, purchasing a ship and following my wanderlust. Yet this is not a tale of bravado and fearlessness, but a very human account of one man's quest. Patterson recounts his voyage with a comfortable style and language. I could identify with the yearning to depart from the inanities of a job and begin a search for ... more. I am not sure if it is the resources or the impetus that I lack. My curiousity about other travel writers is most certainly piqued. Excerpts of Theroux, Chatwin, Slocum and Moitessier (all on my to-read list) are brilliantly used to supplement Patterson's own travelogue. While his journey may have began based in self-pity and sorrow, it finishes with the realization that independence is a truly joyous attribute. Pvovided that you have a place to call home. A fantastic writing debut! Awaiting more.

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Summary: The Me-ism in Between
Review: As a sea-kayaker and an avid reader of books, fiction and non-fiction, dealing with travel, yachting, the seas and kayaking, I bought Kevin Patterson's book, The Water in Between expecting a good yarn regarding a sea voyage. However what I was treated to were lengthy details about Patterson's tedious love affairs, the dreariness of Canadian army life in the baracks and LOTS of quotations from travels writers such as L. Durell, P. Theroux, W. Thesiger (though he omits mentioning his homosexual overtones), B. Moitessier, E. Newby, J. Raban, just to name a few. Travel Literature 101. Nevertheless, one cannot take away from the fact that his journey is one that many of us only dream of as we sit ensconced in recliner chairs and most would agree that a journey is in great part within, never mind the details about rigging and sea anchors and repairing genoa sails. Patterson seems to admire and respect P. Theroux's writing and would do well to re-read his travel books (Happy Isles, Great Railway Bazaar, Riding the Iron Rooster, and others) and study how one can weave literature within the main framework of the book without sounding pedantic and though it's understanding that one's writings or need for travel (escape?) can be brought on by personal grief or incidents in one's life, this can mentioned in brief passing as is done in (Theroux's) Happy Isles. For this reason, my book review loses two stars, hoewever I'd still recommend reading the book. Author of "Motorcycle Vagabonding in Japan"

Rating:
Summary: A sailing adventure for us sea chickens!
Review: As a travelogue-addict who finds most adventurers' feats a bit daunting, this book seems just about perfect. Like The Perfect Storm and Paul Theroux's books, you'll learn a lot about boats, the wind, the waves, ocean crossings, islands, and more... And, refreshingly, Patterson deals with love, romance and heartbreak in a true way with a realistic but heartening conclusion. The same is true of his exploration of the appeal of expeditions and tropical islands.

Entertaining, educational, funny, enlightening, and wise.

Rating:
Summary: beautifully wrought insights
Review: Control freaks and hard case disciplinarians will hate this book, as will anyone who equates "navel-gazer" with "ne'er-do-well". My wife and I both loved the 'The Water in Between', however. It's funny and embarrassingly honest. The author does nothing to make himself more than what he is. In keeping his ocean passages as slow as possible (he's already encrusted with barnacles at the START of a long crossing), he achieves weeks at a time of Zen states that the rest of us can only dream of. He turns the myth and mysticism of wanderlust inside out and explores that terrain with subtlety and nuance most writers only hint at, yielding beautifully wrought insights one after another, page after page. What he does personally with these insights is not nearly as important as just writing about them so deeply. You're free in the end to choose your own path as he heads home.

Rating:
Summary: Am I a sailor? No. Did I love this book? YES!
Review: Even those of us who have had little or no sailing experience, will not be able to resist the charm of Kevin Patterson's writing. It is a tale for even those who get weak at the knees at just contemplating the idea of being surrounded by nothing but water, wind, rain and sky, or by being truly alone with the slapping reality of oneself, will not be able to stop turning the pages. He writes as if he is reading to you, and he teaches you that you can make anything happen, if you so desire it, or if you are just plain bored with the routine of life. "The Water in Between" is not simply the tale of a 29 year old man fulfilling some egotistical plight to capture his youth, or his attempt to 'bodly go where few men have gone before', rather it is an honest, and at times a hilariously sarcastic narrative, about a person who decided to shed the skin of self-pity, and go for it. For me, the most enjoyable part of this book was that while the story itself is real, so to is the author!

Rating:
Summary: Boring whiner drifts in Pacific
Review: Goodness, I had such high hopes for this book. Turned out to be 15% sailing, 15% travelogue, 30% quotations from other travelogues, and 40% whining about the bad things that had happened in the course of the author's last 5-7 years. Great cover, excellent marketing, lousy book.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, thought provoking...
Review: I devoured this story. It spoke to me on so many levels. I have been a blue water sailor for many years and read many of the standards - none has ever captured the intense inner dialogue that I too have experienced on late night watches.

The book answered many of my own questions about why I am drawn to travel - then inexplicably pulled back home again.

Some of the longer passages where he heads of on different tangents didn't fit me on this read - but this will be one of those books I can put on the book shelf on my boat and pull out again and again.

I wonder if you need to be a traveller at heart to really 'get' this book? the negative reviews suprised me. I found it to be a beautiful insightful read though. It will be one of the books I look forward to sharing with friends in far away ports...

Rating:
Summary: A Modern Day Tale of Water Filled Wanderlust
Review: I guess it happens to us all sooner or later. We slowly glance around at the outer shell of our lives, hesitate, then look a little deeper. When the resulting emotions are predomiantly less than favorable, escapism becomes increasingly attractive. Here, we read the tale of a man, a doctor, a somewhat less than novice sailor, who is so unhappy with the state of his existence that he packs up, jumps aboard his newly purchased vessel and head to Tahiti. Thank goodness he takes along an acquaitence who knows more than him about how to set a sail. You can read this book in several ways. One is as an adventure at sea, akin to Joshua Slocumb's unrivaled classic of solo circumnavigation. Or, you can see this tale through the eyes of Everyman, who sees the endless wonder of the sea as the ultimate "road less traveled." Yet, no matter what shape of lens you read it, it is in the end, the tale of a man who has come so close to desperation that he is willing to lose it all, to find something he cannot even identify. And we are taken on a thrilling ride, filled in equal parts with historical anecdotes, geographical explanations, and of course, a deep source of sailing knowledge. To describe the work would be to see the pictures of a vacation before the plane even leaves the ground. Suffice it to say that, within these pages, the reader will be taken away from his own life, if only for awhile, to set sail upon the dangerous and liberating ocean, with a destination in mind, but a journey at heart. And when wanderlust is concerned, it is the path that we travel upon, and not where that path leads, that makes all the difference in the world.

Rating:
Summary: The (many) pages in between
Review: I kept waiting for Patterson to wow me with accounts of fish, sharks, exotic birds and strange discoveries he encountered on his Pacific voyage. Instead, he bored me silly with love affairs gone bad and his dreary days in the Canadian Army. If I want to hear about love gone bad, I'll tune my radio to a country music station.