Short description
David Lewis and his small yacht, Ice Bird, set sail from Sydney, Australia, on a search for high adventure. The voyage, full of drama, emotion and pain, takes place in the least hospitable and most fascinating part of the earth, the Antarctic.
Long description
David Lewis and his small yacht, Ice Bird, set sail from Sydney, Australia, on a search for high adventure. The voyage, full of drama, emotion and pain, takes place in the least hospitable and most fascinating part of the earth, the Antarctic. No one had ever sailed a yacht single-handed to Antarctica until David Lewis' attempt. Along the way, he would not touch land for more than fourteen weeks, facing mountainous seas, constant gales, snow storms, and freezing temperatures. Twice his small yacht was capsized and once it was dismasted 3,500 miles from help. His survival was a miracle of fortitude, skill, and some luck. Ice Bird is one of the great true sea stories of the twentieth century. It is also a tale of human endurance, a testimony of one man's will to overcome almost anything and everything—physical and psychological—to stay alive.
Review
Imagine sailing alone for 14 weeks in freezing temperatures aboard a 32-foot sailboat. Imagine your boat capsizing three times, and losing your mast and rigging. And imagine doing all this without modern electronic navigational tools like the Global Positioning System. -- The ENSIGN The ENSIGN, October 2003