Imperfect Passage
An entertaining memoir of a man who turns sixty and decides to head out to sea. . . .
Michael Cosgrove had a beautiful family, a successful career, and a lovely Southern California home overlooking the Pacific Ocean. At age sixty, he decided to leave it all behind and sail around the world. But despite his visions of rugged individualism and salty tales to share with his grandchildren, and his dogged determination to “do something grand,” Cosgrove quickly realized that sailing around the world wasn’t quite as easy as he had imagined.
In his attempt to avoid the inevitable—growing old, weak, frail—Cosgrove runs amok. He breaks his budget to outfit the boat and then refuses to read the manuals. He enters unfamiliar harbors in the dead of night, hires a violent first mate, and sails headlong into ferocious storms. Alone, and thousands of miles away from everyone he loves, he is forced to ask himself one question: What in God’s name am I doing here? At the same time, he longs for the simpler days when his four daughters were still children, when his first marriage was still intact, and when his dreams were still within reach.
Filled with scenes of sheer terror, absurd folly, and deep inner searching, Imperfect Passage is a buoyant, laugh-out-loud story of one man’s perseverance against Father Time and Mother Nature.
Michael Cosgrove had a beautiful family, a successful career, and a lovely Southern California home overlooking the Pacific Ocean. At age sixty, he decided to leave it all behind and sail around the world. But despite his visions of rugged individualism and salty tales to share with his grandchildren, and his dogged determination to “do something grand,” Cosgrove quickly realized that sailing around the world wasn’t quite as easy as he had imagined.
In his attempt to avoid the inevitable—growing old, weak, frail—Cosgrove runs amok. He breaks his budget to outfit the boat and then refuses to read the manuals. He enters unfamiliar harbors in the dead of night, hires a violent first mate, and sails headlong into ferocious storms. Alone, and thousands of miles away from everyone he loves, he is forced to ask himself one question: What in God’s name am I doing here? At the same time, he longs for the simpler days when his four daughters were still children, when his first marriage was still intact, and when his dreams were still within reach.
Filled with scenes of sheer terror, absurd folly, and deep inner searching, Imperfect Passage is a buoyant, laugh-out-loud story of one man’s perseverance against Father Time and Mother Nature.
