Over The Top

Publisher: Weidenfield & Nicolson; £16.99
Publication Date: 2008

Most circumnavigations are illustrated: Europe to Good Hope; along the bottom of the map; Cape Horn to port; north for home. This one was different and I used an orange to visualise the quest to sail alone from England around the globe 'vertically'. It would include westbound around Cape Horn and eventual passage along the Russian Arctic coast.

The author pays frequent tribute to the great circumnavigators, and in particular those few who have made single-handed westward passage around the Horn. His description of a knock-down there while dealing with a blocked toilet (". . . in a bloody washing machine with four gallons of sewage!") is as compelling as any.

Together with the normal hazards of ocean sailing – including going over the side while still in the Channel – the author faces an unusual and obstinate obstacle. Having departed without permission to pass through Russian waters, constant electronic contact is required – much of it quoted verbatim – with his extraordinary ex-wife who successfully takes on bureaucratic confusion, becomes increasingly committed to the expedition and mothers two young sons. Flanagan was obliged to overwinter in Nome, Alaska and later, when persistent ice prevented westwards progress, he shipped the yacht to Murmansk. Did this invalidate his 'solo vertical' claim? I think not, but the delay took him into another Northern winter when he left the boat at Mehamn, Norway thus extending the expedition into a third year.

The book is a robustly-bound 'brick' of a volume, clearly printed with good colour illustration and a chartlet to open each chapter. The whole is a fine tribute to Adrian Flanagan's achievement. - Edward Cartner