Summary:

Title: The Long Way (1971) [Buy Here]

Author: Bernard Moitessier

Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir

Overview: The Long Way is Moitessier’s chance to persuade his readers to make changes in the world – to “fight the monster.”  Using his participation in the first ever competition to Solo Circumnavigate the globe – the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race (1968) – Moitessier tells us that he’s come to realize there is more to this life than what civilization has become. Through a very literal epic adventure, we watch the changes in a man who is living with the sea, birds, and his own mind for nearly a year. He circles the globe, and, through a matter of chance, decides to keep going.

Critique: The first chapters of the book may catch you off guard. Moitessier jumps directly into his prose and poetic style, over -emphasizing the slightest breeze as metaphor and spiritual significance. Then, maybe surprisingly, we fall for it. By mid way through we are spun into the thoughts of a man alone in the world. We want him to succeed, or not, in whichever struggle, external or internal, he is encountering in the moment. Moitessier’s memoir is so much more than his physical experience as he rounds the globe on his own, he reaches for meaning and he struggles as he recollects the dark side of the human condition – civilization.

Suggestions: Similar to other books that were born of the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, in ’68, Moitessier’s book will be better read if you have a collection of names and stories already in your base knowledge. I suggest reading around a little on the web about the race and its other contenders before reading this book.  Also, don’t be turned off by his style in the beginning, remember this is a story about a man coming to terms with his being-alone in the world, and being at odds with what humanity seems to be doing. His poetic style is not an ego, it’s an attempt to show the reader the beauty of nature and the beauty of being a minimalist. This isn’t to say that this reviewer agrees with the author’s political or spiritual reasoning, it just says that I am attracted to this author because of his gall – to create as an individual and to set off into an extreme individualist’s endeavor. 

Dirty Sailor Company (DSC) Essay:

Bernard Moitessier

The Long Way

After reading Knox-Johnston’s “A World of My Own” I found myself in some deep hollow thought, like a state of limbo, where excitement, awe and disappointment all clash against each other. Knox-Johnston was a competitor. He set out to race around the world, and had his adventure along the way. I had already committed to reading the great circumnavigation stories. The solo trips, first by Joshua Slocum and then by Knox-Johnston, were already crinkled, dog-eared, penned and shelved. When I pulled down the fresh and stiff “The Long Way,” I tried to read with openness. I knew Moitessier chose not to finish the race, but to go on for a second trip round the globe. I was hoping for significance, to rid myself of the disappointment that lingered in my head.

The opening of the book made me cringe. The forced prose, like poems, were fake, long winded, boring, preachy. I kept it going. Slowly, like Joshua around the Cape of Good Hope, my sentiments changed. Moitessier’s style became more authentic (I should go back and see if this was true all along, or did I adjust). By the mid-way point, I was lost in his words. Moitessier didn’t join this race to win, he joined it for sponsorship, then he left it all behind and became entangled with his world and the sea.

As the author tells us the chronological story of his trip around the world, he focuses on the birds, his mind, and the seas. Joshua, his sailing ship, is only the mechanism he uses to force the story into the next chapter. As he begins to ponder his return, to England, he also begins to question his reasoning for return, and he realizes he’s “Free on the left, free on the right, free everywhere.”

I find a personal struggle, as he so easily leaves his children behind, not to mention his wife, which has been a similar trait as the other solo circumnavigators I’ve read (Slocum and Knox-Johnston). He justifies it and writes that they will understand. As he makes his final decision to turn towards a second rounding of the world – his next stop will be Tahiti, or maybe somewhere else. He doesn’t want to see civilization again. He doesn’t want the competitiveness, the consumerism, the money, the grossness of humankind….

As he sails, he reads; he dives into the stories of those who sailed before him – Bombard and Slocum, Cook and Drake… He sails on a vessel whose design was established by 5 centuries of blood, sweat, and sea-water. He sails on a diet that could only be produced by a modern society. He sails past ports with fishing industries and aids to navigation. He photographs and records the waves and the scenery and his thoughts and himself.

Finally, he lands in Tahiti, and his philosophizes about the wharf-rat there. He watches the destruction of the beaches due to a growing island, consumed by tourist and politics and civilization and “the monster.” He watches the world crumble and it makes him depressed. He offers the solution of living small and surviving big.