West! Sail West, Man!

By Hein Zenker

A 1963-66 circumnavigation of the world in a 20-foot sailboat, crewed by a husband/wife team. It tells of life in war-torn Germany and its after effects; work in the outback's of Canada; the planning... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965877302
• ISBN13: 9780965877305
• Release Date: November 1997
• Publisher: Windjammer Books
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A gem of a book

There are as many books to buy as there are pebbles on a beach. But once a while you find a gem. My wife and I took turns reading "West! Sail West, Man!" You inhale the book! It gets worn in your hands! When Irving Johnson, one of the most famous U.S. sailors, admires Hein and Siggi for their courage, it beats any "Gold Medal". A ships carpenter, who walked the deck of the Coast Guard's "Eagle" before she became a war prize, graduating to circumnavigator in team with his beloved Siggi. A book for your library next to Joshua Slocum.

Following a dream

Just imagine you are a healthy, workaholic, lumberjack, "Hein", with a passion for woodworking and an impossible dream . . . to sail around the world. You are extremely limited since you have little money and a girlfriend, "Siggi", whom you do not wish to leave behind. So, what to do? You cut down a tree and marry the girl, of course. You construct a 20½ foot sailboat and trundle it a few thousand miles to California where you wet the keel. Never having sailed before, you quickly learn what works and what doesn't, and with confidence of a renaissance man you start on a voyage of 32000 miles. This all happens before Loran and GPS, so Siggi in no uncertain terms insists that Hein learn Celestial Navigation before sailing from Panama to the Galapagos. The admonition? "Like hell we will! Another Siggiism? "If you keep cursing, we'll NEVER see land again!" What happens between these pages is the amazing story of how Hein and Siggi succeeded, and the adventure they had which rival "The Perils of Pauline." Only the iron will of the two protagonists enable them to complete the circumnavigation scarred but alive. What I particularly like about "West! Sail West, Man! Is that having read the book, TWICE, I now feel that I actually know these two characters.

An extremely gutry adventure

Years ago I came across an article in the Flying Fish (the official publication of the Ocean Cruising Club) where Hein Zenker elaborated on the couple's circumnavigation. A reviewer remarked--and which is my observation as well--"Luck must be on the side of those who reach out to achieve the seemingly impossible and survive". I done my share of ocean sailing (albeit in a much larger vessel and with a big crew), now, that I read their book I firmly believe that the couple's remarkable stamina and the gift to improvise saved them from total destruction. Hein has every reason to be thankful for having a partner like Siggi who (as my wife pointed out) must have suffered a lot to satisfy her man's ambitions. The book quite vividly describes the inner feelings of pleasure found: "away from the dictates of society" or the mental anguish of an approaching storm when: "for the x-time I pondered why apparently sane people venture into this mess repeatedly". What impressed me most is the generous hospitality they found wherever they landed; may it been some primitive island in the South Pacific or sophisticated countries like New Zealand or South Africa. This may well be attributed to the couple's obvious modesty in every respect. The book is fascinating reading, not necessarily for those brave women and men who are about to venture into unknown territory.