When I was about 11 or 12 I read a book that I found on my parents' shelf called 'Dove' by Robin Lee Graham.   

Robin Lee Graham was only 16 when he set sail out of San Pedro harbour in 1965.  He was in a 24 foot yacht called 'Dove' and he was ALONE.  He became the youngest person to sail around the world single handed.  It took him five years and he returned as a married 21 year old and an expectant father.  It seems that the story was followed by National Geographic and later turned into a movie although I never saw it.  'Dove' is the book about his journey.

That book had quite a big impact on me and I have often thought of it over the years.  I loved reading about all the places he visited and the sheer boredom and loneliness he experienced on his boat as well as the storms and more frightening stuff (sharks circling his boat etc).  And all this was in the days of really old fashioned communication equipment.  As a parent now it also seems quite incredible to me that Robin Lee Graham's father not only let his son go but actually facilitated it.  It seems that the father was a keen sailor and he had sold up and taken his family sailing around the South Seas for a year  when Robin was about 13.  When they returned Robin found it hard to settle back into school and had attempted to run away.  It was at this point that his father decided to help him fulfill his dream of circumnavigating the globe.

One of the joys of living in the internet age is that I can instantly order myself a copy of 'Dove' from Amazon, re-read it and see if my 12 year old son enjoys it as much as I did (but not so much that he gets any ideas into his head).  I have also been able to find out what happened to Robin Lee Graham - which is really what I was wondering about.  How do you top an achievement like that?  And how do you have a normal life after an adventure like that?

It seems that Robin did initially find it hard to adjust to normal life when he returned from his trip.  He got a scholarship to Stanford University which he and his wife, Patti,  attended briefly but his trip had matured him in lots of ways and he found it hard to fit in.  He suffered from depression around this time and his marriage took a bit of strain.  He had also fallen out with his father as he felt that his father forced him to finish the trip when he had lost interest in it (largely on account of having met Patti).

In a desire to get away from civilization the Grahams moved to Kalispell, Montana where their nearest neighbors were three miles away.  They raised their two children here and after having built a log house for themselves they started a construction business.

These days they do voluntary work for international aid organizations and are actively involved in their church.  Robin did repair his relationship with his father.  He also published another book "Home is the Sailor" in 1983 - about their lives in Montana.  He apparently has no desire to be around the sea anymore.

I can highly recommend this book to anyone.  It is a good old fashioned adventure.  At the time that Robin sailed around the world there was little of the hype that surrounds an expedition of this nature these days.  He didn't have any fancy navigation equipment - all he had was a sextant, charts and a chronograph.  Apparently there are more people who have travelled into space than there are who have single handedly circumnavigated the globe.  To have done so at such a young age is quite an achievement  and definitely still worth reading about.