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Any one bought Alan Nebauer’s book ‘The Sea is so Great’ yet?
It’s about his Pacific cruise and sounds pretty interesting.
Amazing Top Hat adventure by an amazing man!

Tom

Thanks Tom for letting us know about this book, I'll look it up,
Cheers
Shaun

Thanks for the heads up Tom.

Shaun,
Could you get one for me please.

This book was advertised on BoatBooks. I thought it looked like a TopHat. Would be worth a read!

This is the description of the book, available for about $25 from Boat-books amongst other places.

Description

In 1987 Alan Nebauer was preparing to sail single-handed around the world in the small 25-foot yacht he had fitted out. But things didn't turn out quite as he planned. Within weeks he was married, and instead of setting off alone, he was sailing with his new wife Cindy.

This is an account of Alan and Cindy's early adventures at sea, getting to know each other and building a life together cruising in a small yacht almost 25,000 miles around the Pacific.
As well as illuminating the minutiae and daily challenges of life on board a small boat with almost none of the sophisticated technology available today, the story puts the reader in the middle of storms at sea; introduces the eclectic bunch of fellow travellers and characters they met along the way; paints tantalising pictures of locations they explored; and describes some of the difficulties involved in starting a family while following an adventurous roving lifestyle.

This story offers a window into a nautical lifestyle far from the tourist trail, journeying through small, remote ports and locations accessible only by boat among a close community of others living the cruising life. This inspiring record of a timeless journey will appeal to sailing and adventure enthusiasts as well as general interest travel readers.



Before Alan Nebauer was a celebrated solo ocean racer, he was a cruiser and adventurer, who with his new wife Cindy set off to cross the Pacific aboard a simple, 25-foot sloop. The Sea is so Great is the story of that voyage, and its return to Australia, and is a warm, wonderful, funny, insightful account of that amazing trip. Along the way, the Nebauers meet saints and scoundrels, are tested equally by storms and calms, and venture onward even when their pockets are empty, seemingly on their strong faith alone. Seasoned sailors and even armchair admirals will enjoy this terrific high-seas memoir of love, drama and exploration. The Sea is so Great is just one fine read.

-- Herb McCormick, Executive Editor, Cruising World magazine
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Just finished reading The Sea Is So Great and loved it.
Certainly it is an introduction to Alan’s other book about his BOC Challange campaign but this one is really about cruising.
Sometimes, in the more boisterous passages I had to remind myself that he was in a Top Hat and not a much bigger yacht, such was his apparent lack of concern for the conditions and his trust in his vessel.
An amazing journey which made me proud to have owned and sailed an almost identical boat.
Tom

I just finished reading it. It is a gracious book, with numerous sketches of the people they met along the way, sailors and others, not just an ego-driven story about themselves. This makes it a wonderful portrait of the cruising life, for it is often about the people you meet as much as about the sailing you do. It is also a quiet, understated book, you have to read between the lines. Those of us who have beaten to windward in a rough sea will know just how hard some of the passages they made were. And a couple of their windward passages were thousands of miles long. The last one, from Tonga to Coffs Harbour, was in July! Having recently bought a Top Hat after 23 years of cruising in a steel boat, I am a bit jittery about how strong it is (Mk 3 from Formit Fibreglass), so it was interesting to see how much punishment Deus Regit, built the same year as my boat, could take. A delightful little book that has taken its place on my bookshelf alongside Jan Mitchell's Two on a Top Hat. Interestingly, I was watching an interview with Alan made a year or so ago in Jervis Bay, aboard his new catamaran, and he mentioned that the green Top Hat moored nearby had done a circumnavigation in 1972. That would have been before the Mitchell's voyage in Caprice.