Five days in paradise gathering ideas about adventure

I have spent the last five days at Lake Tarawera, enjoying my last annual leave that will not be spent either sailing or getting the boat ready to sail. This is one of the first holidays in a long time that I have been able to bury myself in adventure books. So today  the entry is a series a book reviews.

The first book I devoured was Chasing the Dawn - Capturing the Trophee Jules Verne by Nick Moloney. I had recently read Nick's sleep deprivation training program, I am still in two minds if I am going to give it ago while working or wait till the Christmas period. Anyway I digress Chasing the Dawn is an exceptional account of racing around the world as the only English speaker 13 man crew,

Next on the list - The Crossing - James Cracknell and Ben Fogles' account of rowing across the Atlantic. Ben and James adventures' including this crossing and their race to the South Pole have been documented by the BBC and are some of my favorite viewing when flying Air New Zealand.

Ben survived a year on a remote island in Castaway 2000, then decided to race across the Atlantic. After a few drinks he asked rowing gold medalist James to join him. Ben had never rowed before, neither had prepared a boat for offshore before. In the weeks before they start, they struggled with boat preparation, sponsorship and getting enough time in the boat. A bit of a reminder to me how Rob and I need to keeping working consistently towards our start in February.

 The book outlines the ups and downs of the life at sea. The biggest take home message is the importance of looking after ones self before looking each other and like the next book I read the ability of the human body to continue after being pushed harder than ever before.

The final book, completed only this morning was Crossing the Ditch - a story of 2 Ozzies kayaking the Tasman Sea. James Castrission's account contained many inspirational quotes, here are just a few....

"putting life into the days, rather than days into our life"

"mountains don't kill people, they just sit there