Sonnet: One Woman's Voyage from Maryland to Greece

by Lydia Bird

From a windswept dock in the Chesapeake Bay, Lydia Bird sets out alone on a 5,000 mile voyage across the Atlantic - it took quick wits, a level head and a settled stomach......and the ability to rely... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0865475075
• ISBN13: 9780865475076
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: North Point Press
• Length: 265 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Whiny? No way!

This is one of the few books I could stand to read on this subject. Im so sick of reading storys about the "reluctant mate", and so happily read this book about a wife who wants to go more than her husband wants to go. ( I guess because I idnetify with it) It shows you to, that sialing away doesnt sail away from your problems - she has all the same issues out there on the water and with other crew mates as she would at home. The whole story was very entertaining...I hope I can do what shes done someday- either by myself, or dragging my husband aboard. It was soo soo good to read about a STRONG COMPETANT female sailor for a change! I hope she writes more!

A Deep and Personal Journey

As a woman who has crossed the Atlantic Ocean, Bird's book was a superb actualization of what I had experienced my self. In fact prior to my journey across the ocean I was seeking out a woman's voice which shared the interpersonal challenges of crossing an ocean. Bird's book depicts the clarity and raw emotions of such a journey. I resonated with her experience and truly appreciated the vulnerability with which she wrote and shared her story. I have found no other woman writer to provide this personal experience. Most write about provisioning, standing watches; the how tos of ocean crossings. Bird brings much more of the voyage to life. I highly recommend this book to people who want a personal account of sailing single-handed.

Impressive

I didn't want to put this book down. I found the relationships aspect most compelling, although the details of sailing, the weather, the boat itself, and the experiences at various marinas are crucial to the story, since all that creates the backdrop against which the human interactions, and the growth of the narrator, take place. I had to keep reminding myself it wasn't a novel. Also, having studied, and taught, a little American women's history, I kept seeing all four women as representative of various cultural prescriptions (and proscriptions) which most of us struggle with.I found Monica (Bird's first crew member), fascinating. I saw her as a frightened woman, dishonest with herself as well as with others, doing what people who feel powerless often do, that is, try to control their world through manipulation.I identified more with Elaine, at least on one front, since I'm the type who demands a life jacket if I embark on a canoe trip in a three-foot-deep lily pond. At the same time, I saw her as buying into the very patriarchal, male-dominated military system. Probably a very strong woman but maybe a little rigid and quick to judgment.I liked very much the relationship that developed between the author and Skyli. The occasional descents into self-doubt, the constant self-examination and analysis of others seemed pretty typical of a female world. At one point, Bird (like the professor in My Fair Lady) wishes women could be more like men. But our tendency to read between the lines and second guess others has probably been our greatest survival mechanism.In short, I was impressed. By the voyage, the author's willingness to risk in so many ways (with the elements and with relationships), and by the book itself. And I mustn't forget to mention the pure poetry of much of the prose.

Introspection on the high seas

It's very good as a sailing memoir, but it's also a deeply introspective and at times painfully honest self-examination. The author presents herself "warts and all", which makes for a few passages of uncomfortable reading, as if you're eavesdropping on a private conversation. She's a bit mean to one crew member, but balances it with generosity towards another, and by her deeply felt concern-edging-towards-despair for her aging expatriate parents. The result is an amazingly detailed self-portrait -- after reading this book, you'll know Lydia Bird, good points and bad, as well as you know your closest friends. But it all comes back to the sailing, which is rendered in vivid, sometimes breathtaking detail.