Coming About : A Family Passage at Sea

Rating:
Summary: With a vivid and engaging honesty
Review: Coming About: A Family Passage At Sea is the memoir of Susan Tyler Hitchcock, a wife and mother of two young children. Feeling the demands of daily life slowly pulling all of the members of her family apart from one another, the Hitchcock's embarked upon a nine-month, 3,500 mile Caribbean sea voyage in order to reconnect and discover more about the world. Highly recommended reading, Coming About biographically chronicles their adventures and life experiences with a vivid and engaging honesty which includes internal contemplations on the values of marriage, family, and togetherness.

Rating:
Summary: Be prepared!
Review: My family and I are planning a sailing trip for a few years and I wanted another perspective on family sailing. After reading this book I honestly did not know whether anyone had a good time on this 9 month adventure. The positive part of the trip was that the children came out of this adventure more experienced with life, etc. However it appeared the trip was a psychological challenge for all. I felt bad for the kids. I cringed everytime their love making came up and not because I am a prude - it was so non-errotic. The author should of left their sex lives out. Similar to having children, sailing for a length of time on a small vessel with four people does not necessarily bring people together unless the relationships are in tact prior. As part of my summer reads, this one was not pleasurable, but painful.

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting, a clear picture of a long sail.
Review: My family currently owns the boat written about in the book, the Hei Tiki II, so it was interesting to see some of the voyages of the family and the boat. Susan writes as a woman who has almost no sailing experiance thrust into a long voyage at sea. She recounts how the various experiances changed her, her family and saved her shaky marriage. She tells how a long time at sea effects the attitudes of the people involved. At first it is easy to feel sorry for her, having no boating experiance but being coerced into it by her husband, but it quickly shows you the enormous strength this woman must have to cope. The tales of exotic ports of call, friends gained and lost, and stormy seas are all secondary to the story of the family. The book is subtitled "A Family's Passage At Sea," and this is what the book is really about, the family.

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Summary: Romance Novelist goes to sea?
Review: My wife & I are considering such a trip in a few years, and are reading as much as possible about others' experiences in the mean time. My advice is to skip this one (glad I only checked it out of the library...). What you get is the story of how a couple lacking in seamanship skills (yes, even her "Capt. Bligh" of a husband) and trapped in a dysfunctional marriage manage to survive 9 months in the Bahamas & Caribbean...with a graphic, poorly written "romance-novel" style sex scene every 25-30 pages or so. It all comes off as some sort of strange exhibitionism.

I have sailed and otherwise travelled to many of the places she describes, and find her descriptions mostly on the level (although I hold Provo in higher regard than she does.) The rest of the book should serve as a cautionary tale on how NOT to do it.

Rating:
Summary: Romance Novelist goes to sea?
Review: My wife & I are considering such a trip in a few years, and are reading as much as possible about others' experiences in the mean time. My advice is to skip this one (glad I only checked it out of the library...). What you get is the story of how a couple lacking in seamanship skills (yes, even her "Capt. Bligh" of a husband) and trapped in a dysfunctional marriage manage to survive 9 months in the Bahamas & Caribbean...with a graphic, poorly written "romance-novel" style sex scene every 25-30 pages or so. It all comes off as some sort of strange exhibitionism.

I have sailed and otherwise travelled to many of the places she describes, and find her descriptions mostly on the level (although I hold Provo in higher regard than she does.) The rest of the book should serve as a cautionary tale on how NOT to do it.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good!
Review: This book is very good. It is a good story about the adventures, trials, and tribulations of a family at sea. Although I did like the book, it is written from a woman's point of view. Not that that makes it good or bad, but being a guy I couldn't help think that the author liked to constantly "put down" her husband...almost to the point of airing their dirty laundry in literary form. This book is well worth reading, even if you are a guy.