Around The World Alone
Book Review: “Dove” by Robin Lee Graham and Derek Gill
★★★★★ (5 out of 5 stars)
This one goes way back.
When I was a kid in the mid 1970’s, my dad gave me a book with a cover that has been etched in my memory: The Boy Who Sailed Around the World Alone. (See the photo) This children’s book told the true story of Robin Lee Graham, a 16-year-old kid who left California in a 24-foot sloop and just… kept going. For five years. Around the world.
I devoured that book and returned to it over and over again. Every page was another adventure. In my mind, I sailed with him into beautiful Polynesian harbors, I faced large carving storm waves in the middle of the Indian ocean, I caravanned through the African countryside on a motorcycle, and I explored the world from the deck of his boat, Dove. National Geographic magazine ran a three-part series on his trip - one of the most popular stories they’d ever done - my dad was a lifelong subscriber to that magazine and I saved those issues like they were buried treasure.
When the trip finally ended, Graham sat down with his co-author Derek Gill and turned his handwritten logbooks into both the children’s book that I read as a child, but also a longer novel called Dove. The book became an instant success. Translated into several languages, reprinted multiple times, and eventually turned into a movie, the book told Robin’s story from his perspective. That’s the book I just finished. And it’s more than a travelogue. It’s a raw, honest look at what happens when a young man not only lives tackles a quest for adventure, but transitions into manhood in the face of dangerous exploration. For many people Dove served as a vicarious answer to their own question, What if I just… go?
This book doesn’t flinch. Robin writes about the beauty, yes - the sunsets, the friends, and eventually Patti, the girl he meets and marries along the way - but he also writes about the long, lonely stretches where the wind disappears and so does your willpower. Depression, doldrums, storms, joy, all of it. He boldly describes the dark days of wanting to give up and what happens when you’ve spent five years on an adventure only to return and have your life torn apart by an eager public that wants to know all about you and your motivations.
He finishes the book with a brief glimpse into his depression of being back on land, conflict with his family when he didn’t meet their expectations, and his struggles with a society in turmoil (think about the early 1970’s social and political landscape). Then, with a very brief introduction, Robin concludes the final chapters talking about the very beginning of his Christian faith and his desire to escape the “rat race” of a society focused on capitalism.
I read Dove initially as a teenager, but going back this past week as an adult was like opening a time capsule. It pulled me right back to the dream that first children’s book planted in my head: What if? I recognize that Robin’s story of being free to live out an adventure has maintained real estate in my brain since I was a little boy. I have retold not only Robin’s story, but my own discovery of his adventure to anyone who will listen. I think my wife is getting tired of hearing about how much I originally thought I would live life in warm Pacific ports or exploring the back roads on a motorcycle.
Even my deep appreciation for the music of Jimmy Buffett can find initial seeds in the photos I remember from Robin Graham’s sailing adventure (We’ve spent many vacations looking for that One Particular Harbor). I know that even my recent acquisition of motorcycles and navigating the back roads of California have their beginning in a photo of Robin leaning across his bike in Africa.
Much of who I am today and my love for adventure and exploration (look at most of my recent book reviews) was nurtured by sitting in a beanbag as a kid and spending hours daydreaming through Robin’s adventures. My dad knew what he was doing. He knew that there was a big, wide world out there, and sometimes the only way to find yourself is to have the guts to explore it. He helped by giving me books. Books about sailing and pirates and trains and explorers. Books help. Education is amazing. But, sometimes you need to pack a bag and head out to see it yourself.
That’s the best thing about rediscovering this old story for me. I realize that in many ways I am still that kid, I’m still staring at a map or spinning a globe, and I still wonder what waits out there beyond the harbor when I’m brave enough to untie the lines and set a course for the unknown.
I leave in a few weeks for a solo motorcycle ride to Montana and then into the Pacific Northwest. There is more to that story that I will include in future posts, but for now I can be certain it’s mostly about the adventure of the road and one more step in a life of exploration that started decades ago when I first cracked open this book.
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
***NOTE*** This book is out of print and might be hard to find, but well worth the effort.
