THE ASSOCIATED PRESS October 2007
Bill Bushnell
Armchair sailors love to read about other people's round-the-world sailing voyages. If they had to do it themselves, however, they would find such a journey to be a grueling test of patience, endurance, and self-reliance. Even experienced blue water sailors find a global circumnavigation to be a daunting challenge. World Voyagers is the marvelous true story of the round-the-world sailing voyage of Georgetown (Maine) residents Amy Wood and Phil Shelton, told with humor, excitement, and unvarnished honesty.
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Amy and Phil. are married and had long dreamed of a sailing circumnavigation. They took 10 years to build their own boat, a sturdy, wooden-hulled, 42-foot, gaff rigged cutter named Iwalani, The Wood-Shelton voyage began in Maine in 2000, and took three long years, finally ending back ill Maine in 2003. Amy and Phil sacrificed a great deal to live their dream, perhaps even believing a bit of the romanticized notions of the pleasures of such a trip. They quickly realized that a sailing circumnavigation is a lot of hard work, and an uneven mix of boredom, fatigue, frayed nerves, short tempers, unexpected calamity, and unmatched peace and beauty.
This book then is a chronicle of their sailing adventures, as well as an eye-opening travelogue, and an honest, sometimes embarrassing appraisal of their own personal strengths and weaknesses, and intimate details of married life at sea. Phil and Amy carefully prepared themselves and their boat for this trip, but still had to endure storms, rogue waves, seasickness, mechanical breakdowns, illness, and injury, all while living in a close-quarters world reduced to a small boat and three miles of visibility in any direction in good weather.
Despite their best efforts, there were times when the voyage seemed too much for them. Phil once declared, "You have to be crazy in order to sail around the world. No person in his right mind would do this!" Living at sea is not at all like living at home on land. Each person stands alternating watches, four hours on and four off, all day and night, every day. There is no privacy and a distinct lack of quality personal hygiene. Fatigue is a major problem.
They sailed from Maine south to the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, up the Atlantic and back to Maine. They tell of all their sailing experiences and ports, adding colorful insight to their ambitious itinerary. They tell of rampant government corruption in Jamaica, of the Panama Canal's rundown condition and incompetent operators, about the widespread crime in South Africa, and about being chased by Indonesian pirates. Amy even had to fend off the persistently unwelcome advances of a boatyard Lothario in Cape Town.
Still, there are pleasant and funny stories, too. They describe the beauty of Polynesia, the kindness of the Pacific islanders and other yachtsmen, the antics of Stewart the Cat, their lazy feline crewmember, and the irony of the lingerie model photo shoot aboard their boat. Learn how engine room profanity really helps when you need to make a difficult repair, why sailors never start a voyage on a Friday, how to get a crab out of your ear, about the medicinal uses of fish mucous, about the tasty dish called Goat's Head Soup, and how lawyers and missionaries have taken all the fun out of life.
Despite the hazards, risks, discomforts, and losses of friends at sea, Amy and Phil experience a fabulous journey of self-discovery, introspection, and renewal. They learned much about themselves, the sea, and the world around them. They also learned that they will probably not do this again. This book is supplemented nicely with maps and color photographs. --BY WILLIAM D. BUSHNELL The Associated Press Oct 2007
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GOOD OLD BOAT- September 2007
Susan Lynn Kingsbury
Author Amy P. Wood stated that she wanted to write a book
that told the true story -- not one with fluff – and she indeed accomplishes
this feat with World Voyagers, an all encompassing detailed account
of a three year circumnavigation aboard Iwalani.
Although this book is lengthy, it reads like a daily log or blog, (which
is where Amy and Phil originally posted the details of their trip online),
and it allows the reader to ultimately become part of the crew, sailing
right along with Phil, Amy and Stewart.
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It’s easy to forget you’re just “reading” about
being places like the Bahamas, Jamaica, Panama, Marquesas, Australia
and South Africa (Just to name a few) as Amy unequivocally “takes
you there.” She shares all the joys, pitfalls, sights, smells,
experiences and enough of herself with us to make us feel like we really
are encountering the adventure firsthand. You’ll feel the seasickness
she hides from her husband Phil, find yourself waking up every four
hours to do your watch, and even crying along with them when they loose
their beloved pet at sea.
But you’ll also feel the warm sun on your skin as you sail naked
in the tropics, see waters in multiple amazing shades of blue, meet
interesting people from all corners of the world and get up close and
personal with lions and many other furred, feathered and finned wildlife.
Then, once in home port again, you’ll feel a true sense of accomplishment.
Well, actually, it’s Amy and Phil who succeed in doing something
they had a burning desire in their hearts to do.
“
It was a goal we could not abandon.” Author Amy P. Wood writes.
They see it through – and you are right there with them, and
despite all the obstacles, from an ex-wife and family who needs them
at home, to health issues, to uncooperative winds, weather and currents,
Amy and Phil not only chase the wind to fulfill their dream, but succeed
in catching it and telling the tale.
If you are expecting a lot of flowery language and poetic descriptions
of this three year trek, you won’t get it. What you will get
is a 100 percent, hands on, authentic account of blue water sailing.
Whether you are a coastal cruiser, blue water cruiser, sailing novice
or just enjoy reading about a great adventure, you are guaranteed to
enjoy sharing Amy, Phil and Stewart’s journey across the deep
blue sea.
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WOODENBOAT - September 2007
Reviewed by W.H. Bunting -
In the late 1990s an old red Yankee-class iceboat occasionally appeared
on Maine lakes. Sailed by a bearded man and a blonde woman, it went
much faster than it should have, considering its aged sail. Then, for
several
seasons, it was missed, to reappear a couple of winters later. Come
to find out that in those intervening years its co-pilots, professional
shipwright Phil Shelton and his wife, veterinarian Amy Wood, had finished
building the 42' Buehler-designed ketch IWALANI and sailed her around
the world.
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They then wrote (in Amy's voice) and published a 430-page
book about it all. This three-against-the-sea saga (there was also
a ship's cat) differs from others of its ilk in that the authors set
out to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
World Voyagers is a must-read
for anyone who dreams of sailing around the world, and also for anyone
feeling guilty for not dreaming about sailing around the world. And for
the rest of us, it is a witty travelogue with attitude-but doesn't ape
the Paul Thoreaux/Jonathan Raban smarty-pants school of travel writing.
It is surely quirky,
and with travel books, quirky is good.
Phil and Amy trade places as captain every day. Both are in a second
marriage, and overshadowing the story of the voyage are the worries about
Phil's two boys, left in the care of their mother, who will not be sending
any Christmas cards to Amy. Amy's devotion to Stewart, the ailing ship's
cat, may strike even some cat lovers as slightly over the top, but her
extraordinary candor saves the story from becoming a seagoing soap opera.
Indeed, it would seem that nothing of a personal nature was off limits,
including some disclosures which I cannot reveal, much less describe,
given WoodenBoat's editorial prudery regarding matters of a sexual nature.
IWALANI, a traditional double-ended gaff-rigger on the outside, was stuffed
with every manner of modern navigational device and appliance, including
ice and ice cream makers, water maker, DVD player, computer, fax machine,
vacuum cleaner, and so on. Of critical importance, Phil the wizard could
fix almost all of them. But despite the comforts of home, and having
prepared for all manner of peril, Phil and Amy still faced moments of
real danger, as well as assorted nuisances and miseries, including Amy's
chronic seasickness.
One cannot help but compare IWALANI's outfit with that of Joshua Slocum's
SPRAY, whose cabin a century earlier boasted of little more than a stove
and a onehanded tin alarm clock. A master at finding longitude by lunars,
Slocum had a sextant but no chronometer. Presumably IWALANI had a sextant
and at least a very good watch onboard, although I don't recall reading
of them, what with the GPS, weather fax, ete.
GPS and dot.com money have created a population explosion of world-traveling
yachts, although relatively few circumnavigate. Forty years ago when
I sailed some of the same waters, and lay in some of the same anchorages,
sighting a yacht was an event; now yachts are often an infestation. Sleepy
little island villages have become crowded tourism destinations. Bureaucracy
has exploded as well. And no island today is too remote not to have beaches
littered with plastic rubbish; the tin and glass containers we once obliviously
dumped overboard promptly sank from sight.
In his classic Sailing Alone Around the World, Slocum described an impromptu
celebration in the Indian Ocean islands of Keeling Cocos, a tropical
paradise of
particular charm:
All that could get on their feet danced, while the babies lay in
heaps in the corners of the room, content.to look on For music two fiddles
screeched over and
over again the good old tune, "We won't go home till morning." And we did not.
Of Keeling Cocos in 2002, we read in World Voyagers:
The following day we take the dinghy over to Home Island and find the
local Internet cafe, a small hut with a huge satellite hookup. Several
Malay teenaged girls are inside enjoying the air conditioning and listening
to music. A few playing solitaire on the computer.
America, too, changed during the voyage; when IWALANI arrived back on
the New England coast, post 9/11, she faced a $15,000 fine for not having
been reported
promptly.
Joshua Slocum's Martha's Vineyard neighbors claimed that he sailed alone
around the world to escape his second wife. One can only wonder how the
literature of the sea might have been changed had he met and married
an irrepressible and adventuresome woman like Amy.
For that matter, Phil and Josh Slocum share many similar traits-lean,
compact physiques; clipped beards; great skill as shipwrights and sailors;
and methodical yet
sardonically playful miens.
Hmmmm.
Bill Bunting is a regular WoodenBoat contributor
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SOUNDINGS- September 2007
Build the Boat, Sail the World
Artist/veterinarian Amy Wood and her wooden-boat builder husband
Philip Shelton spent three years aboard gaff-rigged cutter Iwalani, designed
and built by the couple.
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Their book "World Voyagers" ($29.95,
Book Orchard Press, April 2007) began as a series of weekly blogs on www.worldvoyagers.com
about the journey before being collected into a 432-page hardcover
version.
Wood outfitted the boat as a small animal hospital, neutering and spaying
animals in areas without vets as well as caring for injured wildlife
encountered along the way.Eschewing the typical travel guide style
of describing "destination hot spots" in favor of dialogue
with locals and her travel companions. Wood engages the reader in her
personal
accounts through such locations as the Bahamas, Galapagos, Fiji and
Capetown. In Port Antonio, she describes a dish typically served at
Jamaican weddings: "Apparently a real head was removed from a
real goat, smashed up with a lead pipe and then all the parts were
put in
a big pot along with some other choice tidbits, including the cloven
hooves and intestines."
The book is illustrated with some of Wood's paintings and 32 color
pages of photos along with original cartoons, maps and poems. At the
end is Wood's glossary of terms found in the book, although she cautions:
"Some old salts may dissagree with my definitions -- tough toerails,
I'm not changing anything!"
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Click
HERE to see
a video from our trip.
