Helpful Score: 3
Absolutely amazing story, a book you cannot put down and hard to believe anyone survived this.
Probably one of the best first-person accounts of survival. It is amazing that this man lived and what he did to survive is astonishing!
Helpful Score: 1
I really enjoyed this book and his adventure. I thought he did a good job of telling his tale.
This is an incredibly powerful book. I have read it many times, particularly when you think you are getting more than you can handle in life. I found my copy at Goodwill and bought it on a lark. It was money well spent. His story will stay with you for a long time.
This is a very interesting adventure story. A true life account, the author tells his story of being lost at sea for 76 days. Most of it comes from the journal he kept for the first 30-40 days.
Compelling book about the author, whose boat sank in the Atlantic, leaving him living in a raft for 76 days before floating to land. Gives practical advice on how he survived, as well as his thoughts and psychological issues of the time alone.
I got this book through paperbackswap.com. It had been on someone's recommended reading list. It was a somewhat slow read. I'm sure I'm not the only reader of this book who doesn't have a background in sailing. It would have been helpful if the author had an index that listed many of the nautical terms used and their definitions.
The author also went into great detail about various pieces of equipment--including drawings--which (for me) added nothing of interest. I didn't read these.
Except for the sometimes challenging weather, there wasn't much that happened. There were numerous yawn-inducing day-after-day descriptions of the fish bumping the bottom of the raft and the author's attempts at spearing fish. I was on day 52 and realized I couldn't read about one more attempt to spear a fish or make a repair to the raft. I skipped ahead 60+ pages to Day 71 and then finished the book.
The author has some writing skill. I think the book would have been a lot better had he cut out a lot of the detailed descriptions of his repetitive attempts at fishing, boat repairs, etc.
The author also went into great detail about various pieces of equipment--including drawings--which (for me) added nothing of interest. I didn't read these.
Except for the sometimes challenging weather, there wasn't much that happened. There were numerous yawn-inducing day-after-day descriptions of the fish bumping the bottom of the raft and the author's attempts at spearing fish. I was on day 52 and realized I couldn't read about one more attempt to spear a fish or make a repair to the raft. I skipped ahead 60+ pages to Day 71 and then finished the book.
The author has some writing skill. I think the book would have been a lot better had he cut out a lot of the detailed descriptions of his repetitive attempts at fishing, boat repairs, etc.
ONe night in 1982 Steven Callahan sets sail to the Caribbean. His boat sinks and he finds himself adrift in an inflatable raft. This is a riveting first hand account of how he survived for more than a month at sea!
This is an amazing story!
true story of a man adrift for 76 days
Amazing story. Hard to put down.
After the wreck of his ship, Steven Callahan escaped drowning by the use of an inflatable raft. But the hardships he suffered by surviving may have been worse.
He was without clothes, sufficient food, water, or equipment, & had only the anguish of seeing ships passing several times, but overlooking him. Using his meager resources miraculously survived against incredible odds.
He was without clothes, sufficient food, water, or equipment, & had only the anguish of seeing ships passing several times, but overlooking him. Using his meager resources miraculously survived against incredible odds.
Steven Callahan was adrift in a 5 1/2' inflatable raft for 76 days in the Atlantic. All he had with him was 3 pounds of food, and 8 pints of water. A must read.
I really liked this book. It has me turning page after page to see what was going to happen to this man next. I recommend it.
I had originally gotten this book for my husband to read and I picked it up one day because it was in the car and once I started reading it I could not put it down. I had to find out how this guy survived for seventy-six days on a raft with no food or water. It is a recommended read and one I could not put down once I started reading it from the first page.
I can't describe the book better than the blurb on the back, except to say that the writer makes you feel that you are very nearly personally with him on that drifting wreck of a raft. The broiling sun is roasting you and the Atlantic waves crashing and tumbling over you, over and over---over and over---over and over . . .
From back cover: On the night of January 29, 1982, Steven Callahan set sail in his small sloop from the Canary Islands bound for the Caribbean. Thus began one of the most astounding voyages of the century and one of the great sea adventures of all time.
Six days out the sloop sank, and Callahan found himself adrift in the Atlantic in a five-and-a-half-foot inflatable raft, with only three pounds of food and eight pints of water. Here is the riveting first-hand account of the only man in history to have survived more than a month alone at sea in an inflatable raft.
Racked by hunger, buffeted by storms, and broiled by the tropical sun, Callahan drifted for seventy-six days over eighteen hundred miles of ocean. He fought off sharks with a makeshift spear and watched nine ships pass by without turning back . . . he distilled water by the spoonful with a primitive still, and wasted to just over a hundred pounds, living on a sparse diet of raw fish.
Here is a story of anguish and horror, of undying he5roism and hope . . . the story of a man who peered into the darkest regions of nature and of his own soul--and survived to tell the harrowing tale.
From back cover: On the night of January 29, 1982, Steven Callahan set sail in his small sloop from the Canary Islands bound for the Caribbean. Thus began one of the most astounding voyages of the century and one of the great sea adventures of all time.
Six days out the sloop sank, and Callahan found himself adrift in the Atlantic in a five-and-a-half-foot inflatable raft, with only three pounds of food and eight pints of water. Here is the riveting first-hand account of the only man in history to have survived more than a month alone at sea in an inflatable raft.
Racked by hunger, buffeted by storms, and broiled by the tropical sun, Callahan drifted for seventy-six days over eighteen hundred miles of ocean. He fought off sharks with a makeshift spear and watched nine ships pass by without turning back . . . he distilled water by the spoonful with a primitive still, and wasted to just over a hundred pounds, living on a sparse diet of raw fish.
Here is a story of anguish and horror, of undying he5roism and hope . . . the story of a man who peered into the darkest regions of nature and of his own soul--and survived to tell the harrowing tale.
After the wreck of his ship, Steven Callahan escaped drowning by the use of an inflatable raft. But the hardships he suffered by surviving may have been worse.
He was without clothes, sufficient food, water, or equipment, & had only the anguish of seeing ships passing several times, but overlooking him. Using his meager resources miraculously survived against incredible odds.
He was without clothes, sufficient food, water, or equipment, & had only the anguish of seeing ships passing several times, but overlooking him. Using his meager resources miraculously survived against incredible odds.
Hard to put down. I'm enjoying this book.
