Sailing to the Edge of Fear

Ted Thring is a book reviewer for the Queen’s University radio
station.

Frank Dye is a legendary figure in the sailing community. He has made
voyages in a 16-foot dinghy that would have deterred skippers of crewed
vessels many times that size. “Wanderer,” his vessel of choice, is a
Wayfarer—a sloop-rigged, hard-chined centreboarder of plywood
construction that many would consider most suitable for day sailing in
cottage country. Dye’s first epic voyage was across the North Sea from
England to Norway. This book contains the logs of subsequent voyages
made between 1988 and 1994.

The first voyage took Dye across the Atlantic, from Norfolk, England,
to Norfolk, Virginia. The second voyage, from Virginia to Maine,
included an encounter with Hurricane Hugo. Dye next traveled from Maine
to La Have, Nova Scotia. From there he sailed to Prince Edward Island
and met with another hurricane. He cruised through the Gulf of St.
Lawrence and made his way to Lake Ontario through the Seaway. He
explored the Rideau Canal and took the Trent Canal to the upper Great
Lakes.

Dye not only sails single-handed without an engine but lives on board
his boat. To do this, he rigs a tent over the boom and sleeps on an air
mattress in the cockpit; he cooks on a primus stove. All of this and
more is recorded in detail in this collection of his daily logs. It is a
book that should be dipped into on winter evenings spent by the
fireside, preferably with a rum toddy at hand.