Dangerous Waters: One Man's Search for Adventure

Elsie de Bruijn was Associate Head, Woodward Biomedical Library, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

The middle-aged author, feeling the need for a little weekend exercise, bought a bicycle. But David Philpott is not your ordinary 49-year old. He is, in his own words, “an over-achieving golden boy of real estate development.” Behind him lie 25 years of success in a particularly hard-hitting business. Typically for him, cycling progresses from a pre-breakfast spin to rigorous weekend workouts. Within a year he is riding solo from Toronto to Florida, then by stages across Canada. Even so, he feels, something remains to be done.

When such a man decides to renew his interest in sailing, the results should be no surprise.

... I knew [Serenity IV] was beautiful, and also knew that I was going to head out to the Atlantic. I had no precise plans beyond Halifax, but sail out into the Atlantic I must.

Considering Serenity’s design, this is already rather ambitious. Philpott is talking about a 30-foot cruising catboat, with a single sail and mast. Later, following a disastrous shakedown cruise to Antigua, even the mast goes. But all is not lost. Outfitters’ mistakes have dangerously weakened the rig; these are corrected, and by March, 1980, “I had made my decision. I would circumnavigate the world singlehanded.”

Sailing the South Atlantic toward Africa completes the author’s progress toward self-knowledge. As driven man and driven boat meet driven seas, the inevitable happens and Serenity is disabled. Without sails, engine, heat or radio, Philpott is swept steadily out of the shipping lanes towards Antarctica and certain death. How his fantasies of rescue and hot baths are answered should be left to his own words.

Although we come to know a good deal about the writer and the complex forces that motivate him, few readers will totally warm to him as a man. However, he tackles this autobiography-cum-sea story in the same way as his financial projects, and nearly as successfully. As a first-time author and single-handed sailor, David Philpott can be commended for a very gutsy endeavour.