Dove

Book Rating: 3 of 5

Dove is Robin Lee Graham’s telling of his circumnavigation starting at age 16 from 1965 - 1970. Before reading the book I had never heard of Robin Lee Graham, but it appears he was a minor celebrity during and briefly after his 5 year circumnavigation.

After reading the book these are the things I remember

Robin nearly killing himself at 15 trying to sail a home-made sailboat with two other friends from O’ahu Lanai. They were caught in a powerful storm during small craft advisory and barely made it to Lanai. The coast guard had hunted for them and written them off for dead. The boat’s keel broke off after the storm.

Dove was a very small 24 ft Sloop. Robin navigated with sextant and typically had one or two cats on the boat. Dove’s inboard was frequently broken and Robin eventually replaced it with and outboard motor.

Robin was pushed a lot by his father and National Geographic Magazine to finish the trip. National Geographic funded the circumnavigation and produced a number of issues with Robins images.

Robin was very isolated while sailing the Dove with limited radio communication. His circumnavigation with so little tech and in such a small boat is very unique. The Dove is de-masted TWICE! How Robin dealt with this is impressive.

Eventually Robin gives up on the 24ft Dove and a much nicer 34ft boat is built that he sails for the final leg of the journey from Barbados back to Long Beach CA.

Robin struggled later in life with depression and thoughts of suicide. In some ways I feel like his circumnavigation was about avoiding his problems. His relationship with his father seemed rocky and although not strongly called out in the book the clearly have a falling out.

Robin meets his lifetime partner Patti in the south pacific. She’s a very unique girl how basically hitchhikes around the world following him. I wonder what level of risk she was in? Or if traveling the world along as a young woman is safer then I think. I know if one of my daughters was travelling like Patti did I would be terrified. Maybe things were different in 1965…

A somewhat interesting followup to the novel is listening to this on the wind podcast interview with Robin: PodCast Link He struggled a great deal in life. Eventually he decides that Jesus saves him.

Overall Dove is a typical sailing book for its era. Probably what makes it stand out is all the full color pictures you can find of Dove and Robin and Patti.