The Voyage of the Sanderling: An Atlantic Odyssey

It was an ambitious project--a coastal voyage from Maine to Florida, on to the eastern islands of the Caribbean, to the northern coast of Brazil and thence to Rio de Janiero. The object was to assess the current environmental crisis along the Atlantic seaboard. Stone, author of Dreams of Amazonia and vice-president of the World Wildlife Fund, and crew set out in the 38-foot cutter Sanderling , a gift to the Fund. Here he presents grim evidence of coastal pollution observed throughout the voyage, reports on efforts at improvement and points out the few bright spots. On the Caribbean leg of the voyage, Sanderling anchored on Cuba's north shore and touched remote islands where Columbus reputedly made landfall. While the text leans more toward environmental issues than to sailing, sailing buffs will delight in Stone's log of the 16-day, arduous passage from Barbados to Brazil's northern coast. Illustrated. (Jan.)