ReadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2025

Sailing to the Far Horizon

The Restless Journey and Tragic Sinking of a Tall Ship

Pamela Sisman Bitterman author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:University of Wisconsin Press

Published:6th Oct '04

Should be back in stock very soon

Sailing to the Far Horizon cover

Of the legions of wayfarers who shared in the tall ship Sofia's diverse and colorful history, only seventeen were on board when she went down. Of those who survived to tell the tale, none has...until now. More than twenty-five years ago, Pamela Sisman Bitterman began her journey on board a 123-foot, sixty-year-old sailing ship being readied for its second global circumnavigation. The details of events from this journey endure as vividly today as when Bitterman was a naive "shellback" swabbie, later ship's bos'un, and finally acting first mate. In the end, she was merely one on a liferaft of grateful survivors. Sailing to the Far Horizon draws on original journal entries, photographs, and excerpts from official Coast Guard documents that chronicle the fascinating enigma that was the Sofia and its dramatic end.

“[Bitterman] tells this compelling 25-year-old story as if it happened yesterday. And the reader can't help but mourn the loss of the ship and the crew's improvised lifestyle, as well as feel the joy, danger, and discovery that the author experienced and never forgot.”—Booklist

“When Pam Bitterman talks of her experiences on the adventurous but ill-fated Sofia in her late twenties, you can hear that this is a story she feels she can’t keep to herself. Lucky for us, she hasn’t because the result is a book in a class by itself. . . . Bitterman came away with not only a plethora of fascinating tales of world exploration and personal dynamics, but also the wisdom of one who has truly grown through adversity.”—The Log

“Although Pam wrote Sailing to the Far Horizon 25 years after the sinking the story is alive and fresh as much is based on her journals kept during her roughly four-year voyage. Her writing is very descriptive, taking the reader through the adventures and near-disasters as she lived them. . . . A well-told tale and wonderful reading.”—Santana Sailing Magazine

"The human stories embedded in this book, poignant and painful, reveal the way that a ship boils people down to their essentials. You really get at the heart of who someone is on a voyage, even before you add the defining element of tragedy."—Jim Delgado, host of National Geographic Television's The Sea Hunters and executive director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum

"Several hours after I finished reading this book, I was still recovering. I felt as if I'd been shaken, and punched in the stomach. And yes, that's a desirable reaction."—Gillian Kendall, coauthor with Mark O'Brien of How I Became a Human Being: A Disabled Man's Quest for Independence

ISBN: 9780299201906

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 28mm

Weight: unknown

368 pages