"You'll see, a transatlantic race is like a psychoanalysis", a sailor friend told me one day before I cast off for my first Atlantic crossing in the trade winds. This is obviously what Denis Pérot experienced while crossing from Cape Verde to Trinidad on a sailboat.
This sailor who is approaching the last quarter of his life has joined a crew in Cape Verde on a 45-foot sailboat. They will be 5 adults to reach the West Indies just opposite after 15 days at sea. It is during these days that he writes his logbook and lets his mind wander by taking notes.
And as he says in his notes of the 10th day, "Why not write a little book in which I would use all this to digress, settle a few scores, talk about everything and nothing while navel-gazing?" So that's what he does, using the events on board to connect them with those he has experienced in his life.
This book jumps from a navigation at sea downwind, to a development of ideas on education, work, family or any other varied subject. It is necessary to have experienced the long time, the stopped time, the possibility of wandering of the crew at sea to appreciate and understand this text. Indeed, when time has no more hold on the sailor, when he has stayed too long at sea to detach himself from the constraints of the land, he has all the time in the world to let himself be carried away to reflection. This is what we find in Denis Pérot's essay.
If the reflections resulting from the navigation are approached in a simple and pragmatic way and bring us to think, we appreciated less the last two chapters more moralizing which do not bring anything to the story.
This book is probably a bit of a catch-all. Going from one idea to another. No doubt that the long-distance sailor will find it better than the one who hopes to find the story of a transatlantic race with technical information. Indeed, Denis Perot delivers us only with a pinch of salt some information about the boat which carries him or the reasons of the crew to sail. But the light style and the deep reflections can be read without difficulty and with pleasure.
Gypsies - Denis Pérot
- Le Lys Bleu Publishing
- 12 x 19 cm
- 116 pages
- 12,40 euros
