Home from Distant Seas

The 28-Foot Sailboat Atom Completes Her Second Circumnavigation

By: James Baldwin

Narrated by: Ross Pipkin

Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Home from Distant Seas completes the trilogy of books by James Baldwin recounting his 25 years of live-aboard cruising adventures. The author creates a tribute to the sea and to those who venture upon her in small voyaging sailboats as he describes his personal journey of survival and discovery at sea as well as the sailors and local people he met along the way.

Continuing here with the memoir of his second adventurous circumnavigation begun in his earlier books Bound for Distant Seas and The Next Distant Sea, the author makes his way slowly, at times reluctantly, homeward from South Africa to the United States. He encounters a fierce storm off the Cape of Good Hope that tests his boat and his seamanship, then sails across the South Atlantic to Brazil and the Caribbean isles where he marries, and ultimately finds a new home port on the US East coast.

On his journey Baldwin interviews some extraordinary characters who befriended him, ranging from a family of treasure hunters and island traders roaming the Indian Ocean on a Polynesian-style catamaran, to a married couple who sailed alone around the world together on two separate boats, a man who wintered alone aboard his sailboat in Antarctica, to an 80-year-old sailor who had just completed an Atlantic crossing in a unique home-built leeboarder. In his matter-of-fact style, Baldwin brings you all the colors and characters of humanity—the good, the bad, and the downright bizarre. As their stories meld with his own, Home from Distant Seas provides insight into those intrepid individuals who lead their lives on distant seas. In the end, James Baldwin’s story is less a treatise on how to sail than a description and endorsement of a way of life.

©2020 James Baldwin (P)2021 James Baldwin

Loved it! another great book by Mr. Baldwin

I really enjoyed this 4th book from James Baldwin. I found it well written and the narrator's voice was calming, smooth and very pleasent to listen to.

Never gets old

I've listened at lease 3 times every time I hear something new I never heard before

A plea to Audible

Dear Audible, please, for love all things nautical, do NOT let Ross Pipkin narrate any more non fiction sailing books. I believe his... talents are best suited to children's adventure fiction or some such.

That off my chest, Baldwin's book series are a must read (listen) for any and all who love or dream of sailing. I cannot recommend these "distant seas" books highly enough.
Jake N.

Not a fan of the narrator

The first hour of the narrator was AWFUL. It was like he was trying to speak in a different, obviously obnoxious voice the whole time. Turning it up to 1.1x helped to get through it. After a while, he got better (perhaps even he got tired of his caricature voice??) and the rest of it was fine.

Otherwise, it was a good book. Don't read it unless you've read his first 3.

A great conclusion to his adventures

If you’ve read the first two books in the series, you’ll really enjoy the conclusion.  Mr Baldwin is a great sailor who has led a remarkable life.