Curious Side-bar to the Crowhurst Saga - Rated 
There is an old and, these days, rather politically incorrect joke about the first [insert nationality of your choice] man to win of the Tour de France, who was so pleased with himself he did a lap of honour and hasn't been heard from since. The humour derives from the transparent ridiculousness of the scenario, but that's in essence exactly what Bernard Moitessier's did: this memoir, largely extracted from his ships logs, is the story of the Frenchman who, when leading the round the world yacht race and in the home straight, peeled off went round again. Only he didn't make it to the finish line first.
Now that in itself would be a pretty extraordinary story - a certified classic sea-dog's yarn of the 20th Century - but because it happened in the wake (if you'll excuse the pun) of infinitely stranger behaviour from fellow competitor Donald Crowhurst, it has only ever achieved the lesser status of an interesting historical side-bar. For Moitessier's unexpected change of tack (if you'll excuse the pun) crystallised an even more bizarre - and tragic - chain of events which had been unfolding aboard Crowhurst's boat, the Teignmouth Electron. None of Crowhurst's story is covered here, however (at the time Moitessier was ploughing around the Cape of Good Hope none the wiser, so that's hardly surprising) but those interested in Crowhurst's tragic tale are warmly recommended The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst and the fine Channel 4 Film Deep Water, both of which also cover Moitessier's race in some detail.
This is nonetheless a highly readable memoir of an unusually solitary man and, at times, is a vivid articulation of his his view of his place on the planet and his relationship with the elements. Moitessier was a genuine romantic, an anti-modernist to boot, and interlaced his narrative of the long journey (all good Boys' Own stuff) with quite profound ruminations on God, Grace, the Planet and the Eternal Horizon. To my surprise I found the book became less interesting as it progressed, when you would expect quite the contrary. However enthusiastic he is about ruminating on the place of man in the cosmos, Moitessier doesn't really explain, or embark upon any deep inner analysis of, his reasons for unexpectedly opting for another crack at the southern ocean over a tearful reunion with his wife and children.
The treatment of that last part of the voyage is peremptory and the book finishes somewhat abruptly on an atoll in Tahiti. An interesting read, but I would recommend the Crowhurst story as a prelude.
Olly Buxton
Lone sailing with a differnce. A mystic ocean communion. - Rated 
I read The Long Way first in the 1970's when I fancied doing sailing as a life during a crazy fit of romanticised thinking about my own future. Moitessier's account of his voyage and how he abandoned the race made the story rather as though it should have been called "Zen and the Art of lone sailing"!
He was a mystic and his roots in Vietnam and France all helped him to have a very metaphysical outlook on the art of sailing alone around the world battling the elements of nature and with himself. It's not the usual run-of-the-mill single-handed stuff. His writing style was so well-structured that he even wrote interestingly about being bored for days on end when becalmed in The Doldrums at the start of the race.
Then his account of how he went on to abandon the race and sail more miles than almost anyone else had ever done without touching land was superb. It showed how he was emulating Joshua Slocum the first ever long-distance solo yachtsman and he wrote about his respect for that person very touchingly. He named his boat Joshua in tribute. One might imagine that once he'd left the cut and thrust of the race around the world that he'd run out of things to grip the reader with, but this was not so. He kept interest going with his communion with nature and his unique way of being part of the experience of all that was good, bad, terrifying or ecstatic in turns about sea voyages on your own. The book The Long Way was nothing like other circumnavigations by all the famous people who were into that kind of thing at that time. But I read The Long Way several times and every time it seemed fresh in my mind. Like all good books, I found something new in it to think about on each reading. I can recommend it. I lent mine to someone and they lost it. So I am going to buy another copy and read it again after a lapse of some 23 years. It's going to be as fresh as ever.
Inspiring - Rated
Having read many books on the sea; this captured some of them moments which most sailors can't begin to put in to words let alone fill a book with.
Fantasticaly written and descriptive to the point of feeling the real world slip away to a blue ocean with nothing but dolphins and the wind for company. Great....
| 
