This is a book I’ve had on my reading list for a while now. Here’s a link to it on Amazon:

I’ve read excerpts of it in the past and it was pretty interesting. It’s a true story about (and by) doctor Hannes Lindemann who crossed the Atlantic in 1956, completely unassisted, in a Klepper folding kayak. Along the way, he encountered a couple of hurricanes, and also went a little insane.

In the (long lost) excerpt that I read on the web years ago, he was talking to his outrigger while imagining it was a boy. He also described how, after he ran out of food, he found a floating bottle with tiny crabs on it. And how he smashed the crabs and ate them, raw and with shells on.

Anyway, the alleged point of the trans-Atlantic crossing was to see the human body’s reaction to stress. I believe he started in Liberia and ended at the east coast of North America.

I had forgotten the name of the book for a while, and the proper spelling of “Hannes Lindemann”, thinking for a time that it was “Hans” or “Lindeman” or some variations thereof. But now that the proper spelling is preserved on my very own website, I can definitely maybe put this on my reading list of books to possibly one day read when I have more time.

Technorati Tags: Hannes Lindemann, klepper, folding kayak, atlantic, transatlantic, alone at sea, 1956