The Boy Who Fell to Shore

Charles J. Doane is an active bluewater sailor who has worked as a yachting journalist since 1986. He has logged nearly 100,000 miles sailing offshore, including seven transatlantic passages and a number of singlehanded passages between the West Indies and New England. He has cruised extensively on the U.S. East Coast, in the West Indies, in Spain and Portugal, and in West Africa. His racing credits include runs in the Newport-Bermuda Race, the Fastnet Race, and the Sydney-Hobart Race. Besides having worked on staff at top U.S. sailing magazines, he is the author of two previous books -- The Modern Cruising Sailboat, a reference work, and The Sea Is Not Full, a memoir. His freelance work has appeared in The New York Times and in top international sailing magazines. In previous existences he was an attorney and a daily newspaper reporter.

Born at sea aboard his father's hand-built sailboat and raised barefoot on her wood decks, Thomas Thor Tangvald's oceanic childhood was full of beauty and wonder-but was also scarred by horrific tragedies that left him an orphan. Cast ashore into regular contact with human society for the first time at age 15, this intellectually gifted and uniquely educated young man at first reveled in his new environment but ultimately was led by his trauma into spirals of addiction and broken relationships. Thomas hasn't been seen since he sailed away from French Guiana in 2014, and some believe he must still be alive. ¿
THE BOY WHO FELL TO SHORE is an insider's account of the Tangvald legend. Charles J. Doane-an accomplished bluewater sailor and longtime sailing journalist-tracks Thomas and his father Peter (a renowned but controversial sailor and author) across thousands of ocean miles through intimate interviews, personal correspondence, documentary research, and first-hand experience of the tropical anchorages and passage routes they frequented. This biography is by turns inspiring, terrifying, beautiful, and infuriating as Doane deftly explores the great cost of living freely at the whim of wind and water. ¿