The Boy Who Sailed Around the World Alone

Robin Lee Graham and Derek L.T. Gill (1973)

THE A5 BOOK REVIEW

Robin Lee Graham is an American sailor who set out in 1965 as a sixteen-year-old to sail around the world, alone.   Robin’s father, an avid sailor who had wanted to sail around the world himself, was very supportive and involved in the planning, but Robin’s mother was initially against the idea.  The first leg of Graham’s journey was from Los Angeles to Hawaii, giving him confidence to keep going.   As expected, the teenager faced long bouts of boredom and loneliness, storms, sharks, and financial challenges (as he started with just $75 in his pocket).  He made most of the voyage on a 24 foot sloop called Dove, although he finished on a different boat.  All in all, he covered over 33,000 miles over five years, returning to Los Angeles with a wife, daughter, and three cats.  He became rather famous as National Geographic picked up the story early into his trip.  The book was also made into a movie in 1974 called The Dove.
Click here to see reviews and prices for this book on Amazon.

OTHER A5 RECOMMENDATIONS ON PEOPLE WHO SAILED AROUND THE WORLD

While Joshua Slocum might have been the first to create the youth-who-sailed-around-the-world genre, there are several other great books.  Each has its own appeal, and it is also interesting to see how these sailors were affected by those who went before them.  Here are our favorites.  

GREAT QUOTES:

“Happiness has no frontiers, that it’s a state of mind and not a possession, not a set route through life, not a goal to be gained but something that steals in gently like an evening mist or the morning sunlight—something beyond our control.”

​"At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much."

INTERESTING LINKS: