#465 - Journey to the Edge of the Earth
by Joeanna Rebello Fernandes & Cdr Abhilash Tomy and illustrated by Missy Dunaway
“Journey to the Edge of the Earth” by Joeanna Rebello Fernandes & Cdr Abhilash Tomy, KC, NM (Retd) and illustrated by Missy Dunaway. Published by Penguin. An incredible real life adventure of an Indian sailor and his love for the seas.
The book tells the true adventure of Commander Abhilash Tomy, a former officer of the Indian Navy who set off on a grand adventure of a lifetime in 2012. He circumnavigated the world by himself without stopping anywhere on land by sailing for five months non stop. He emcountered all kinds of challenges during this feat. But he managed to rise to the occasion each time surviving them all and achieving the extraordinary distinction of being the first Indian to have sailed like this. His mission Sagar Parikrama II was a resounding success. He was awarded the Kirti Chakra for his heroism after this one of a kind journey.
The narrative is in Abhilash’s voice. He recounts the entire circumnavigation journey detailing every leg of it. As we get to travel with him, he talks about his childhood and how he got interested in sailing. The narrative is peppered with fascinating stories of famous ships, sailors, legends, history of sailing, geographical aspects such as wind and currents and quite a few interesting trivia. Abhilash’s ambition to have a grand adventure in his life came true with this mission. Dive into his compelling tale of courage, grit and determination to circle the world on his little boat Mhadei by reading this fascinating book.
The book had me and my nine year old charmed right from the prologue till the end. It was a nail biting and phenomenal story of an extraordinary man’s even more extraordinary journey. To imagine a solitary sailor in an ocean on a small boat being at the mercy of the wind and waves was quite some thing. His rocksteady determination to make the mission a successful one was definitely fuelled by his love and passion for sailing and the ocean. We were awestruck by the enormous responsibility and the kind of readiness and preparation that one needs to have when undertaking a journey of this kind. With no help from anyone, to be managing everything by oneself can be quite gruelling and overwhelming. On one occasion, Abhilash has to climb atop the mast to reattach the runaway line which had pulled off. A glance at the view from the top of the mast after he finished the job left him spellbound. His realisation that it wasn’t blood that ran in his veins but the ocean was something that we couldn’t agree more about. It was just lovely! The entire description of his journey has been beautifully done and it made us feel as though we were watching it unfold in front of our eyes. One thing we share in common with Abhilash and loved to know was our love for reading books :)
I had seen this book as a part of the Penguin catalogue last year but did not pick it up then as it was for readers aged 13 and above. But I did add it to my wish list to pick it up when my son grew older. When we recently read about the all women crew from the Indian Navy who circumnavigated the world in the book “Cadet No 1 and Other Amazing Women in the Armed Forces”, I casually mentioned about this book to my son. He kept asking me to get this book and I tried telling him to wait. But he didn’t budge and I am glad that we read the book last week. This is a memorable book for sure and is going to be read again over the next few years. We loved the illustrations and the choice of colours. The presence of side stories and facts about sailing kept the narrative very interesting for us. As I write the review, my son is back to watching the “Life of Pi” movie for the second time saying that he is understanding it better this time having read this book :) After having read the book, we read up more about Abhilash online. For one, we intend to go through his blog that he wrote during the journey. We were overjoyed to know that he has successfully completed another circumnavigation of the world by participating in the 2022 Golden Globe Race. In a previous attempt in 2018, he had suffered severe back injuries when his boat was damaged in a storm and had to be rescued. It is amazing to see this awe inspiring person set one goal after the other for himself and giving it his all to pursue and achieve it.
Recommended Age
The book is apt for children aged 12/13 for self reading. However, it can be read aloud to slightly younger children with some explanations like we did.
Reasons to Read
For an account of a true adventure of a real life hero that is awe-inspiring.
For the love of the oceans, sailing and some fascinating stories as well as facts of the world of water.