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UK Holidays - Three Years in a Twelve-Foot Boat
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List Price: $16.95
Our Price: $90.84
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Seekers Press
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.45
EAN: 9780966933734
ISBN: 0966933737
Label: Seekers Press
Manufacturer: Seekers Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 390
Publication Date: 2000-09
Publisher: Seekers Press
Studio: Seekers Press
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Editorial Reviews:
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Written with hard-hitting honesty and emotional sensitivity, this is Stephen Ladd's account of his three-year adventure in a 200-pound boat of his own design and construction. The journey begins in the North American Rockies, progresses down the Pacific Coast of Panama and Colombia, crosses South America-including overland hitchhiking of author and boat for several hundred miles-and finally cruises the Caribbean back to Miami, Florida, ultimately sailing 6,500 miles and visiting 19 countries. Capsizes, a robbery at knifepoint, and arrests in Cuba and Haiti are just some of the fascinating adventures in this poetic account of an unprecedented voyage.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Fulfilling an Ambition
Comment: A surprisingly good read... after purchasing the book, and then realizing it was not a whole lot about sailing, I let it gather dust for several months... But once into the book, I was captivated - and I have little interest in rowing, or river travel either... Ladd seems to have the knack for making mosquito invested estuaries sounding inviting, or at least intriguing... But Ladd's journey is as much about meeting and getting to know people (as well as himself, I'll wager...) as anything... Yes, he rows and sails thousands of miles, but this really isn't a nautical book so much as an adventure of life in the genre of a more enlightened period of the 20th Century - few serious rewards will be found by those more at home in the instant-gratification 21st century... Ladd is a gifted writer who knows how to turn a phrase, setting sunsets and storms alike to poetry - he lets us share his voyage - a voyage more of attitude and intellect, than simple, carnal flesh.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Warts and all
Comment: What an interesting book.
While this book is in essence a travelogue of Ladd's voyage through some very interesting and dangerous parts of the world it is also a voyage of him as a writer, seaman, and person.
Ladd's book is interspersed with a number of poems and for the first few chapters it is difficult to distinguish the poetry from the prose. I found this hard going and nearly put the book down, however from about chapter 5 Ladd finds a style that embraces his unusual and insightful use of language that paints a vivid and descriptive account of his voyage from all perspectives.
The people and the places visited, especially outside of the US, are unique and unusual and Ladd captures their beauty, poverty and despair as it may be. At times he is lucky to survive and you can feel the anxiety in his writing without this being played up by the author.
Ladd leaves nothing untouched and this may make you cringe when it borders on personal areas that you wish were left unsaid but in its own way this is part of his voyage as a person and the book is richer for Ladd's honesty.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I'm glad he went without me
Comment: I am a bookstore fumbler. I pull everything out, look here and there and find books like this one that can't be ignored. I hoped to really enjoy this book, since the idea is so compelling. This is the story of a young guy who gets an idea for a solo voyage to Latin America and then designs and builds a cheap, single-handed boat to make the improbable trip.
I have to say, though, that from start to finish I never wished I was him. Sure, he's a good boat designer and builder - his wierd craft survived the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific, the Orinoco and the Caribbean. He must also be a very capable and fearless sailor, since he went places that seem impossible in such a small craft. But as someone who has been over much of the ground he covered, I'm glad he went without me.
One is struck by the author's constant need for and dependence on the kindness of strangers, including many whose language he does not speak well, although from the account that is never lacking. Sometimes it seems that he does push it too far and asks more than a host might reasonably be asked to supply. At the same time there is an almost sinister tone, a feeling that something really bad is just about to happen. Of course, bad things do happen all around him constantantly, and the fact that he returned at all to write this book is at least partly due to his good luck.
It's a bit gritty for my taste - I can almost taste the muddy water and feel the mosquito bites - but as a cautionary tale it gets high marks.
Customer Rating:
Summary: In no way a classic sailing nor adventure story
Comment: This Guy confuses falling in love with prostitute sex. He does not even know before he goes anything about where he is going; no charts, no boat registration, no understanding of legal aspect of moving himself and his boat in the areas he plans to go - and this was after a YEAR of planning.
He believes he needs the protection of a gun.. Hmm - and then that gun had better have the most deadly bullets in the world.
He writes (terrible) poetry all the time and constantly adds statements that I assume he feels will impress.
This guy's text is unsophisticated, and abbrasive. But he had an incredible journey.
Definately not a girl friendly book. If you are a beer swilling guy that likes the ladies (whatever they cost) you will probably find this book a great read. Much more a book about Steven Ladd, than about sailing, or even the areas he visits.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sophomoric Sex and Booze Journal
Comment: Very little about sailing, and most of what is there displays the author's lack, not command of skill and judgment. It is hard to fathom that anyone would think that average readers are more interested in details of his copulation with a prostitute than they are with the construction and operation of the boat, but apparently, Steve Ladd thought those were the important details to include. A previous reviewer got it right: It's "Dear Diary" with a catchy title. I could not finish it. I skipped around, trying to find some part that wasn't saturated with the author's ego and libido, but finally gave up. If there were some good illustrations on the details of the boat, it would rate 2 stars, but the few line drawings of the boat were all two-dimensional and lacking detail. Part of the appeal of the travelogue is experiencing the trip vicariously. If you want to experience loose women, prostitutes, drugs, vagrancy and the seamy side of just about everything related to cruising, this is your book.
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