The Voyage by Philip Caputo. From the author of A Rumor of War, comes this gnarly sea story detailing the adventures of four adolescents who are sent to sea in a 46-foot schooner by their detached and grim father. The boys’ sail down the U.S. East Coast lands them eventually in Key West, where they embark on a brief and tragic career in the sponge and marine salvage business.Venturing to sea without an itinerary in a little wooden schooner is perhaps every sailor’s private dream. Caputo does not let us down, since he provides all the wonderful details of just how thrilling it would be: the way the vessel handles, the camaraderie of life at sea, the joy of working with traditional navigation, and negotiating unknown shores.
800-793-2665; 420 pages; $26.
