The adventure of Joshua Slocum, this old sea wolf, began on an April morning in 1895 in Boston, when the retired captain of merchant ships boarded the Spray, an old eleven-meter sloop that he himself had rebuilt, having made the decision to sail around the world alone.
Knowing the sea as few do and having great confidence in his humble but seaworthy sloop, Slocum set sail out of love for the sea, but also wanting to prove to those who said that this journey was impossible, that it could be done. The daring odyssey lasted almost three years, three years in which the Spray and its captain faced many dangers and their endurance was severely tested. However, with patience, determination, and his great nautical experience, Slocum ultimately achieved what everyone considered impossible. The attack he suffered from pirates off the coast of Gibraltar, the fierce storms in the Strait of Magellan, the currents and the tidal waves off the wild shores of Patagonia, and the terrible cyclone that struck him near New York shortly before the end of the journey, are just some of the adventures that Slocum brings to life on paper with his unpretentious and vivid pen, in a narrative that is imbued with his unique humor and stoicism as a man who learned one thing in his life: to respect the sea and to read its signs correctly, overcoming every obstacle with the deep conviction that "the seas were made to be traveled".