Astronauts of Cape Horn

Nicholas Gray

The Conrad Press

£16.99

As Robin Knox-Johnston approached Cape Horn at Christmas 1968 he reflected on the contrast between the Apollo programme and his own adventure: ‘I was doing it simply because I bloody well wanted to’. Nicholas Gray’s book is particularly strong on the earliest yachtsmen to sail solo round the Horn, impelled solely by their personal determination, not racing or recordbreaking. His accounts of Al Hansen, Vito Dumas, Marcel Bardiaux, Bill Nance and Edward Allcard are gripping and his original research makes this an important book. With typical self-deprecation Knox-Johnston stated there was nothing that could be learned of human endurance from his experiences that could not be learned from tests under controlled conditions. These stories prove him wrong.