Sailing to the Reefs »

In this, his first book, never before published in the U.S., the famous French sailor describes his shipwreck on the Chagos atoll in the Indian Oceans, his building of Marie-Therese II, and his leisurely voyage to the West Indies, where he met disaster.

Booknews

Originally published in France in 1960, Moitessier's first book describes not one but two shipwrecks: first in a Siamese junk called the , on an atoll in the Indian Ocean, and the other<-->after a voyage via South Africa, St. Helena, Ascension Island, and Brazil to the West Indies<-->in the , which Moitessier built from scratch in nine months. In his introduction, Charles Doane calls Moitessier "one of the greatest bluewater sailors of the 20th century." After this book he went on to write three others about the exaltation of sailing and self-revelation; he died in 1994, a legend among people who sail. This edition was translated by Ren<'e> Hague. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)