Unsinkable, by Abby Sunderland and Lynn Vincent

All her life, Abby has loved sailing.  In fact, as a child, a great portion of her life was lived at sea.  After watching her brother circumnavigate the world by boat, Abby set the same goal, with the additional hope to be the youngest person to sail nonstop around the globe.  After lots of preparation and sacrifice by her whole family and sailing team, Abby struck out to face her goal.  She was pushed to lengths and in ways she never knew existed, and came to rely on God in a way she had never experienced.

I remember when Abby was in the news for her attempt.  At the time, I thought the whole endeavor ridiculous and negligent.  I read this book in the hopes of understanding Abby's motivations, as well as those of her parents.  And the book certainly did clear things up for me.  I now understand and respect Abby's choice, for the choice truly was hers, and it does seem as though she was well prepared for her attempt.

That being said, I found the book somewhat boring.  It is chock full of nautical information that I really did not care to understand.  Reading this book felt like work.  I really expected to see more about Abby's emotional and spiritual journey, and am disappointed that the book did not deliver.  A lot of the book is highly technical.  Sure, I could have worked a little harder to understand the nautical aspects, but the book just did not make me care enough to do that work.

As far as memoirs or autobiogrpahies go, I think readers who enjoy those genres will find this a little shallow on the aspects we typically expect from memoirs.  However, for people who enjoy more technical reads, or for those readers experienced with and in love with sailing, this book would be a fantastic match.


I received a review copy of this book courtesy of the publisher.