Dove

When I'm not sailing (or battling the weeds in my lawn and flowerbed... or trying to keep my house held together with ducktape and stripped screws), I like to read about sailing. My latest reading adventure was Dove , Robin Lee Graham's story of his solo circumnavigation that he began at age 16.

I was expecting a dramatic sailing story focused on the challenges and victories of solo cruising, and it was that. (A dis-masting in the Indian Ocean, for pity's sake?!) But I also got what I didn't expect. Maybe it's just the season of life that I'm in --what with the function of my ovaries slowly winding down, and my masochistic compulsion to watch every single one of the baby-related shows on Discovery Health - aka 'The Childbirth Channel') -- but what stood out to me most brightly was the love story of Robin and Patti. From the day they met, there was a powerful attraction that grew into a true, deep love and a need -- a joyful need -- to be together. Rather than 'just' a story of a solo circumnavigation, I found Dove to be the story of Robin's continuing voyage 'home' to Patti. I really enjoyed reading this book and escaping, for a time, into a beautiful love story. Apparently there are such things as happy endings. This is what love looks like: