4.0
Second Wind
ByPublisher Description
A charming memoir of midlife by the bestselling author of Mayflower and In the Hurricane's Eye, recounting his attempt to recapture a national sailing championship he'd won at twenty-two.
“There had been something elemental and all consuming about a Sunfish. Nothing could compare to the exhilaration of a close race in a real blow—the wind howling and spray flying as my Sunfish and I punched through the waves to the finish.”
In the spring of 1992, Nat Philbrick was in his late thirties, living with his family on Nantucket, feeling stranded and longing for that thrill of victory he once felt after winning a national sailing championship in his youth. Was it a midlife crisis? It was certainly a watershed for the journalist-turned-stay-at-home dad, who impulsively decided to throw his hat into the ring, or water, again.
With the bemused approval of his wife and children, Philbrick used the off-season on the island as his solitary training ground, sailing his tiny Sunfish to its remotest corners, experiencing the haunting beauty of its tidal creeks, inlets, and wave-battered sandbars. On ponds, bays, rivers, and finally at the championship on a lake in the heartland of America, he sailed through storms and memories, racing for the prize, but finding something unexpected about himself instead.
“There had been something elemental and all consuming about a Sunfish. Nothing could compare to the exhilaration of a close race in a real blow—the wind howling and spray flying as my Sunfish and I punched through the waves to the finish.”
In the spring of 1992, Nat Philbrick was in his late thirties, living with his family on Nantucket, feeling stranded and longing for that thrill of victory he once felt after winning a national sailing championship in his youth. Was it a midlife crisis? It was certainly a watershed for the journalist-turned-stay-at-home dad, who impulsively decided to throw his hat into the ring, or water, again.
With the bemused approval of his wife and children, Philbrick used the off-season on the island as his solitary training ground, sailing his tiny Sunfish to its remotest corners, experiencing the haunting beauty of its tidal creeks, inlets, and wave-battered sandbars. On ponds, bays, rivers, and finally at the championship on a lake in the heartland of America, he sailed through storms and memories, racing for the prize, but finding something unexpected about himself instead.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesSecond Wind Reviews
4.0
“I really enjoyed how this book was written! Even though it was a non-fiction & memoir-esque, it was written more like a story. It was definitely more sailing technical verbiage wise, which i would have liked more definitions of. But otherwise, i enjoyed the story and the underlying messages. It was nice to be able to picture the landscape given that i live in the northeast too”
“As a former competitor in the Inland Lake Yachting association, a sunfish boat owner and a lover of dinghy sailing since I was eight years old, this book was like a warm hug for me. The terminology, the descriptions of the roll-tacks and the feeling of flying in the sunfish were so perfect. I had to laugh at the mention of the death roll on the downwind. That was my greatest fear as a sailor. I hope one day I may step foot in a dinghy again, perhaps like the author did. There is no feeling like the spray hitting your face, your abs searing while you hit the zone of ease, hike, trim on a breezy day.”
About Nathaniel Philbrick
Nathaniel Philbrick is the author of In the Heart of the Sea, winner of the National Book Award; Mayflower, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Bunker Hill, winner of the New England Book Award; Sea of Glory; The Last Stand; Why Read Moby Dick?; Valiant Ambition; and Away Off Shore.
Other books by Nathaniel Philbrick
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