An Inexplicable Attraction: My Fifty Years of Ocean Sailing

Sailing well into his eighties, Captain Eric Forsyth shows in his book, An Inexplicable Attraction: My Fifty Years of Ocean Sailing, that age need not be a barrier to an adventurous retirement. His love of ocean sailing was ignited in 1964 when he crossed the Atlantic with his wife, Edith, crewing aboard a friend's 46-foot boat. For more than fifty years, mostly aboard his sturdy cutter Fiona, Forsyth has cruised the oceans of the world, making voyages that included two circumnavigations of the globe, cruises through the Northwest Passage and to the Baltic, and several excursions to both the Arctic and Antarctic. His stories will appeal to all sailors, whether active or armchair, and to travel buffs with a penchant for remote places and their histories. On a more serious side, Forsyth has seen many countries that he visited over the decades change from languorous oligarchies to developing democracies with a thriving middle class. Like the U.S., they have a profligate appetite for fossil fuel, which is not a sustainable resource in the long run. He suggests ways of bringing attention to this global problem. Captain Forsyth has been honored by fellow sailors with the Seven Seas Award from the Seven Seas Cruising Association, and the Blue Water Medal, given annually by the Cruising Club of America to a single amateur sailor worldwide.

About the Author :
Eric Forsyth grew up in Bolton, England. After obtaining a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Manchester University, he served as an RAF fighter pilot in the 1950s. He obtained a master's degree at Toronto University in 1960 and then worked until his retirement in 1995 at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York. He led the development at Brookhaven of superconducting cables suitable for very high capacity underground AC transmission systems. In 1986 he was appointed chair of the Accelerator Development Department, which was responsible for the construction and design of several particle accelerators, including preconstruction design and planning of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, now the largest nuclear physics research tool in the U.S. Forsyth is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE), and in 2007 he was presented with the Herman Halperin Award for Power Transmission and Distribution development. This is the highest distinction awarded annually by the IEEE for research in this field. Since retirement he has twice taken his sailboat around the world and sailed to both polar regions several times, including a transit of the Northwest Passage. In 2000, he was awarded the Blue Water Medal by the Cruising Club of America, an honor given annually to one amateur sailor worldwide. Eric married Edith, a physician, in 1958, and they had two children, a son, Colin, and a daughter, Brenda.

Review :
KIRKUS REVIEWS. Starred Review, Selected as one of the Best 100 Memoirs of 2018: "A live-aboard sailor recalls five decades and 300,000 nautical miles at sea in this debut memoir with an environmentalist edge. Forsyth admits that he's partial to the idea of escape. ... This is a lovingly compiled work, with charts and photographs that effectively complement the narrative. It will be a joy for anyone familiar with deep-water sailing and an inspiration for those eager to try it. An intrepid, educational, and thoroughly enjoyable voyage." OCEAN NAVIGATOR, November 2017, by Peter Stoops. If you like cruising, ocean passages or visiting exotic places, read this book. ... It's all presented in Mr. Forsyth's matter-of-fact, often tongue-in-cheek style that underscores the humor and patience one needs when voyaging. While I envy his ability to act on his love of sailing, I am also grateful that he can share his experiences with us. An Inexplicable Attraction is second best to actually being there." WINDCHECK MAGAZINE, July 2017: "Sailing out of Weeks Yacht Yard in Patchogue, NY, Captain Eric Forsyth has logged approximately 300,000 nautical miles .... An Inexplicable Attraction is a very entertaining compilation of these adventures." A JOURNEY ON THE SEA, by Chuck Anderson in The Long Island Advance, 6/22/17: "This book is a compendium of information for sailors who wish to follow Forsyth's voyages, as well as a fascinating read for armchair travelers.... The author also makes some timely and relevant observations about the state of the world: the melting ice caps, the inexorable depletion of fossil fuels, and the garbage fouling the oceans. Forsyth comes to some significant conclusions -- that he prefers the journey to the destination."