Sailing Alone Around the World, by Joshua Slocum

This is the amazing story of the first person to circumnavigate the globe single-handedly. Slocum is both the author and the sailor and the tale he tells is strangely captivating. In 1895 he constructed a thirty-six foot long sloop by hand and then set sail from Boston. In 1898 he returned, after visiting Europe, North Africa, South America, Australia and South Africa in that order. Along the way he encounters shipwrecks and storms, pirates and presidents, cutthroats and celebrities. An incredible story, this was recommended to me by a friend of mine who has done a fair amount of sailing himself; I’ll in turn recommend it to any of you as well.

First Sentence:

In the fair land of Nova Scotia, a maritime province, there is a ridge called North Mountaini, overlooking the Bay of Fundy on one side and the fertile Annapolis valley on the other.