Review
WL Rating
An eccentric raft builder drinking salt water without blowing a kidney? What more could you ask for? In Seaworthy, T.R. Pearson does a masterful job of capturing the mix of nobility, futility and abject heroism that surrounds William Willis’ cross-ocean rafting treks. This is a great book that recounts Willis’ 7,000 mile journey across the Pacific on an ill-conceived, self-made raft named Seven Little Sisters. At various points in the book I found myself laughing out loud, shaking my head in disbelief, and occasionally just shouting out “No way.” For example, in one episode, Willis is on the raft with a double hernia that, because of his stubbornness, he refused to get treated before the trip. To ease his pain, he hauls himself up the raft’s mast by his feet and hangs upside down for hours on end. This sort of bizarre activity surfaces every 20-odd pages in the book, and while hilarious at times, is really more of a testament to Willis’ ability endure and embrace absurd levels of hardship. This book is an easy read for the beach, and a better story than more well-known rafting saga, Kon Tiki. (August 2008)
Seaworthy - T.R. Pearson
