Product Description

After their 43ft schooner was stove in by a pod of killer whales, the six members of the Robertson family spent 37 days adrift in the Pacific. With no maps, compass or navigation instruments and rations for only 3 days.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #487489 in Books
• Published on: 1994-10
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 217 pages

Sailing, December 1996
...[a] well-written account....an unexpectedly personal view of a man's physical and a woman's emotional courage that, when bonded, produced the strength to survive.

From the Back Cover
"For stark excitement, marine natural history, practical lessons, and human love and stresses, few records, if any, of hazard and survival have ever bettered it." --Washington Post

"[The Robertsons] survived and their tale is a triumph of human resource and determination against terrible odds." --Cruising World

"Unique, fascinating, magnificent!" --Samuel Eliot Morison

About the Author
Dougal Roberts is a writer and sailing enthusiast.

Customer Reviews

VERY VERY GOOD
this was a great book- i liked "adrift" better but this was still very enjoyable and an amazing true story- it was maybe too technical for me but not unbearably so- the dad is a bit pompous in his writing and tries to sound like a better writer than he is and the infighting he recounts was a bit unpleasant for me, but it was still very interesting to read their survival techniques and see their eventual rescue- i mentioned to my friend (who had also read the book) that i was disliking the father while reading it but his response was "the man is a hero for goodness sake! he single handedly is responsible for saving this entire family plus their guest!" and you know what? my friend is absolutely right, you may not like the father (or not mind him at all like my friend) but what matters is that he saved his entire "crew" and didn't play favourites with his family- he was brilliant and if my boat ever capsized, i would definitely want him on board with me- this is a good story that all should read-

Gone in sixty seconds
In this fascinating book, Dougal Robertson describes the survival at sea of six people for over a month. Their 43-foot schooner sank in only a minute after being attacked by killer whales.

Um, killer whales? A couple of hundred miles west of the Galapagos? In warm water? That's pretty rare. That was truly awful luck. They were lucky to get their life raft and 9-foot dinghy launched, so that they did not go down with their ship.

Surviving at sea is not easy, but the most critical elements are buoyancy and water. We see plenty about both. The life raft lasted a little more than two weeks, and the dinghy only had a few inches of freeboard when all six people were on board. Any swamping would almost surely be fatal, so they sailed their dinghy stern-first, with a flotation collar at the bow end and a sea anchor behind the bow.

What about water? There wasn't going to be much near the equator, so they chose to sail north. At around 5 degrees north, rain is more plentiful. It took two weeks to accomplish this, and the day after that, it rained enough to give them good chances to reach land (in fact, they did run low on water again, got more rain, and finally were rescued by a Japanese fishing boat when they were less than 300 miles from Costa Rica). By the way, one can drink sea water, but it just makes things worse. The Robertsons were wise to avoid trying it.

And, of course, what about food? They did catch some fish and turtles, and they eventually wound up with adequate provisions.

I was curious to see what stores Robertson advises for life rafts. There's a discussion of food and water, as well as a rain-catcher. And there has to be a means of propulsion. A useful knife. Fishing equipment (a gaff is the most important of these). A spear head. A bailer. A first-aid kit, a repair kit, and some line. A couple of sea anchors.

And, oh yes, some navigational equipment, including a clock and compass, as well as "dividers strong enough to be used as small fish spears." Along with a series of world charts "showing shipping lanes with frequency of use, ocean currents with set and drift, seasonal weather with, most important of all, rainfall expectations."

All these things probably ought to be made to float, and there probably needs to be an instruction manual.

Of course, as Robertson mentions, it would be useful to have a (battery-operated) phone or radio phone. He does not discuss beacons, and while I think these are better than nothing, I'd rather have two-way communications before staking my life on staying put.

Given that the life raft did not last all that long, Robertson also has some suggestions for making rafts that might last longer.

Of course, none of this will do you much good if you go down with your ship, so the most important thing is to make sure that you can get yourselves and the lifeboat off the ship very quickly, and under terrifying and unexpected conditions.

I recommend this book.

Hard to Swallow
I tried to read this book, but only made it about 50 pages. Despite the many rave reviews and status of this book, it did not ring true to me. I read it while vacationing in the Galapagos, and I just didn't buy it. I love the genre, Krakauer being number one. In the Heart of the Sea, etc, all good. But this one did not work for me. Sorry.