To those who read this – thanks for sticking with me as I prepare to head back outside properly. I’ve been doing a massive amount of physical rehabilitation on my back muscles and it has really made a difference. Back on the trails this weekend….it’s been far too long.

So the book – any good?

This book is stacked full of metaphors and comparisons of ocean crossings and making decisions in life. Richard King has done a phenomenally detailed piece of research for this. Serious respect.

The author repeatedly refers back to the question that is often asked of those who have set out on single-handed voyages. ”Why go?”

The answers are as varied as the waves themselves, but let’s focus this question on the things we choose to do in life – why the job you do? Why the education you were examined for? Why the partner you have? Why the food you eat? Why the goals you set, why the dreams you nurture at night, why anything really. The questions become so numerous that the question mark gets lost.

There’s an old medieval story, made into numerous films and re-tellings, called The Quest for the Holy Grail. The idea is that a prize of some kind lies at the end of a long journey. Sailing alone is a bit like that. Searching for an insight that can’t be provided on land, a view that is unique and literally once in a lifetime, and a perspective that only ocean discomfort can clarify.

A quest, if you survive it, provides you with three things. Confidence through overcoming hardship, competence through repeated failures, and contentment at being able to rest at the idea of the journey being finished. All three of these things are highly desirable. But it will also leave you with something else – unanswered questions, reflections on yourself, and a high bar which it is all too easy to regress from all too quickly when you’re done.

I think everyone should go on their own Voyage (capital V) at some point in their lives. But this need not be in a boat. It could be a long distance walk, a gruelling course of education, military training or something else entirely. It could even be a long and unexpected recovery from a health problem. But on that last note, I genuinely think it needs to be something you do to yourself, rather than is done to you.

Sailing alone is both purposeful and transformative, and it marks one of the rites of passage of life.

That’s my last book for now. I almost called it a review, but it isn’t. It definitely isn’t. I started reading, got distracted by the above thoughts, cherry picked my way through some interesting chapters, and left 90 percent unread. But it had the above impact. It is well written and the author should be proud of their work. I have already donated this to a charity store, despite buying it new just a month ago. It marks the end of a chapter for me.

I need to head outside now. I’ve got a long way to walk if I’m ever to qualify as a Lowland or Moorland leader. With Spring firmly in position, I’m heading out to get some more days for my logbook. I am feeling very fatigued being indoors a lot. It’s just not in my nature!

See you out on the hill…