Friday, May 27, 2005
Armchair voyage
It's been years, a decade or more, since I've been swept out to sea, completely out of sight of familiar landmarks, by a great adventure book.
I found Blue Water Vagabond by Dennis Puleston in the Greenwich dump -- what a find! It was bound simply, in paperback. It was marked, "Copyright 1939 by Doubleday, Doran & Company. This special edition published by Dennis Puleston." It was signed in an unsteady hand by the author.
It is the story of Puleston, a young lad in the 1930s who got a 31 foot yawl together and sailed with a friend from England to the Caribbean islands. They sailed among islands without jetports, when New York and Frankfurt were properly many weeks away. They lived on wild goat, grouper and turtle, often penniless but never destitute. Then a sail to New York on a larger vessel (which runs aground off the Carolina Banks) leads to another vessel and a heart-thumping winter-gale-swept passage from Nova Scotia to New York. Then Puleston seizes the chance of a lifetime to join a South Pacific bound schooner. A dreamy dalliance among Marquesas and Tahitian islands becomes a malarial nightmare as the cruise moves west and finally disbands in Manila.
As I turned the last page of Blue Water Vagabond I didn't want it to end, so I Googled author Dennis Puleston. Whoever said "six degrees of separation" was four or five high! He died in 2001 just a few miles south of here. I love watching the ospreys he helped save from extinction's brink. And there was an even closer connection -- in later life he was a naturalist with Lindblad Expeditions. Lindblad is more of a membership organization than a company; my own Lindblad cruise to the Arctic remains one of my own most treasured memories (and provides one of the most enduringly popular pages on my Web site).
I only missed Puleston by a few years, and I am sorry I did. I don't know where you can find Blue Water Vagabond, but if a copy washes up on your shore, you'd do well to take it home and crack it open.
I found Blue Water Vagabond by Dennis Puleston in the Greenwich dump -- what a find! It was bound simply, in paperback. It was marked, "Copyright 1939 by Doubleday, Doran & Company. This special edition published by Dennis Puleston." It was signed in an unsteady hand by the author.
It is the story of Puleston, a young lad in the 1930s who got a 31 foot yawl together and sailed with a friend from England to the Caribbean islands. They sailed among islands without jetports, when New York and Frankfurt were properly many weeks away. They lived on wild goat, grouper and turtle, often penniless but never destitute. Then a sail to New York on a larger vessel (which runs aground off the Carolina Banks) leads to another vessel and a heart-thumping winter-gale-swept passage from Nova Scotia to New York. Then Puleston seizes the chance of a lifetime to join a South Pacific bound schooner. A dreamy dalliance among Marquesas and Tahitian islands becomes a malarial nightmare as the cruise moves west and finally disbands in Manila.
As I turned the last page of Blue Water Vagabond I didn't want it to end, so I Googled author Dennis Puleston. Whoever said "six degrees of separation" was four or five high! He died in 2001 just a few miles south of here. I love watching the ospreys he helped save from extinction's brink. And there was an even closer connection -- in later life he was a naturalist with Lindblad Expeditions. Lindblad is more of a membership organization than a company; my own Lindblad cruise to the Arctic remains one of my own most treasured memories (and provides one of the most enduringly popular pages on my Web site).
I only missed Puleston by a few years, and I am sorry I did. I don't know where you can find Blue Water Vagabond, but if a copy washes up on your shore, you'd do well to take it home and crack it open.
Technorati Tags: Sailing
Comments:
Saw your note on my dad's book BWV. Nice to hear appreciative comments! He was very special to his children & grandchildren and also to the many people he met along the way. He has another book called The Gull's Way ($12.95 + $3 for shipping) which deals with his life after those early adventures. He published it privately, so I have the only copies. He also wrote The Long Island Nature Journal, which you may be able to find used. Have you checked out the osprey live-video under Post Morrow? Jennifer P Clement
# posted by 
: 5/02/2006 10:41 PM
: 5/02/2006 10:41 PM
Jennifer Clement: If you'd give me some contact info, I'd be glad to buy "Gull's Way!" Or feel free to contact me -- all my info is on http://isen.com
Jennifer Clement--I saw your comments about your dad's works. What an impressive life he led from what little I've read. I have a copy of "A Nature Journal" wrapped in plastic. It has two bluebirds on the cover and a grasshopper on the bottom of the cover. If you are interested in purchasing the book contact me at gm414@mindspring.com. I will try to work with you so that you will have a new copy if you so desire. If not congratulations on being a member of an impressive family. I read some of the memorial info and that must have been quite a day. Thanks
# posted by : 6/20/2006 11:44 PM
: 6/20/2006 11:44 PM
Am currently reading BWV for the first time. Fun ... the Fahnestock brothers were my mom's uncles. It's interesting to get Dennis's perspective on the South Seas voyage I've heard about over the years. Hope to sneak a peak at The Gull's Way sometime ...
I crew on a Tartan-10 on weekend races. I am intrigued by the offshore cruising in these books. It's currently sleeting along the Lake Erie shore and few boats are out. The Newfoundland trip must have been something. We don't have birch ice mallets aboard our boat.
Tom Russell
Cleveland, Ohio
russellthomasp@yahoo.com
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I crew on a Tartan-10 on weekend races. I am intrigued by the offshore cruising in these books. It's currently sleeting along the Lake Erie shore and few boats are out. The Newfoundland trip must have been something. We don't have birch ice mallets aboard our boat.
Tom Russell
Cleveland, Ohio
russellthomasp@yahoo.com
# posted by : 10/25/2006 10:39 AM
: 10/25/2006 10:39 AM
