At the Mercy of the Sea: The True Story of Three Sailors in a Caribbean Hurricane: John Kretschmer
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Kretschmer was a friend of Carl Wake, one of three sailors caught in Hurricane Lenny on November 14, 1999, in the Caribbean. The storm’s winds reached 150 miles an hour. The sailors were from three countries, sailing three fundamentally different boats, heading in three different directions when the storm hit. Kretschmer had taught Wake how to sail, helped him choose his boat, and offered him advice on when to sail in the Caribbean. Kretschmer draws on interviews with family and friends, and transcripts of their radio calls, and then analyzes the storm, aided by the National Hurricane Center. Wake initially was able to rescue one of the other sailors, but ultimately all three boats sank. Much of the book is a tribute to Wake, recounting his personal life and his love of sailing. Kretschmer also offers a portrait of the two other sailors, Steven Rigby, from Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford-on-Avon, and Guillaume Llobregat, from Brazil, who lived in St. Martin. Kretschmer has created a fast-paced, moving story of a disaster at sea. George Cohen
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“The tale of Carl Wake and the hurricane that was waiting for him goes straight to the heart of the greatest sea stories: they are not about man against the sea, but man against himself. John Kretschmer’s book is as perfectly shaped and flawlessly written as such a story can be. In addition to being the best depiction I have ever read of what it is like to be inside a hurricane at sea, At the Mercy of the Sea is as moving a story of a man’s failure and redemption as can be found anywhere in the literature of the sea. This book is surely destined to become a classic.”—Peter Nichols, author of Sea Change and A Voyage for Madmen
“John Kretschmer has transformed this story of three men on a collision course with a hurricane into a modern seafaring classic.”—Peter Nielsen, editor of SAIL magazine
“With expert analysis and taut writing, he draws readers into that mad storm. You can’t turn away. You keep reading until it breaks your heart.”—Fred Grimm, columnist for the Miami Herald
“Once begun, his vivid and powerful narrative is impossible to put down.”—Derek Lundy, author of Godforsaken Sea and The Way of a Ship
“I felt I knew Carl Wake, because John Kretschmer found in him an archetype—an aging sailor with an age-old dream.”—Jim Carrier, transatlantic sailor and author of The Ship and the Storm: Hurricane Mitch and the Loss of the Fantome
“A remarkable book, impossible to put down.”—Herb McCormick, sailing journalist
