53° 18.93N 168° 27.14W 17-jul-2020 — I’ve started William F Buckley’s Atlantic High, a book I’ve known about since parts of it were printed in the New Yorker in 1981. The copy I have is the fifth printing, so the book did well.
I had, before I read the NY’er piece, determined I wanted to sail across the Atlantic. Buckley took a number of friends on this trip (he’d crossed before and written a well-regarded book, Airborne) and required his friends to keep journals of this trip that he would turn into a book.
It was different sailing then. Position was mostly by celestial navigation, though I think Loran may have existed. In celestial navigation you learn once or twice a day where you think you might be, generally based on where you thought you were yesterday, if you have clear skies. Otherwise, it may be a few days sailing by compass before you once again learn where you think you may be.
Weather was listening, in the broadest terms, to weather reports of some area of an ocean you were in. I don’t know if one could down load a weather fax yet. One watched a barometer, taking readings every four hours or less, looked at whether pressure was falling or rising and how quickly. This information, when put together with whether you were in the northern or southern hemisphere and what direction the wind was coming from, gave a good idea of what weather was coming and if you should steer toward it, away from it, or just hold course.
Single Side Band (SSB) radio existed, so you could also hire a weather router, as we have done on Caro Babbo, to help make routing decisions.
And yet, having done a passage, I know that time marches by, one day into the next and then it is over. It is much shorter than one expects. Weeks are not forever.
Jennifer and I sail alone on a 31ft vessel, Buckley and his five friends traveled on a 71-foot traditional, by our lights, ketch. By today’s standard that boat would be cramped and dark, heavy and slow, and very wet on deck. But sea kindly, with gentle motion.
I’ll probably finish this book in the next week or two, if you’d like to read along.
Please remember, I won’t see comments until we hit Dutch Harbor on Saturday. (and not even then–there is no cellular service until Anchorage!) the directions on the main page of the the website.
To give a highlight, Buckley in his Prologue is already armpits deep into self promotion, telling an interesting story about how crucial it is that People magazine have a one-line quote from him about crossing the Atlantic a second time before they could go to press. His quote is somewhat ribald alluding to the customary events of a wedding night.
I remember Buckley as brilliant, well spoken, generally but not always quick on his feet, and never, ever not selling how smart, brilliant and important he was.
John Kenneth Galbraith gives the last and very curious endorsement for the book, one which makes me wonder what sort of editorial control for promotion Buckley actually had.
About Buckley and his writing, Galbraith wrote ”He cannot afford to have serious people think he is a failed politician, when he is a master of a higher craft.”
I doubt anyone remembers Buckley’s ill-fated run for national office representing NY. If anyone could be called a snob, it was William F. It was hubris to think that the NY electorate would overlook that.
Whose mind did that failure weigh on, Buckley’s? Or was Galbraith taking an opportunity to reintroduce Buckley to the ground under his feet?
Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.
