The book is much more than just another yachting yarn. The passage of an ocean is described as the exciting experience it certainly was. But Sailing into Solitude is much more than that, for it tells the story of another journey, to the … 'land that is walled with mirrors' … that revealing place where every posture, every façade, stands naked to the truthful eye. Perhaps many of us trudge this road; not all of us are honest enough to tell of our adventures.
Here it is. The laughter and the pain, the effort and the failure; the boldness and the fear, which will lead to a better understanding of ourselves.
Val Howells has not only succeeded in crossing the Atlantic, but has managed to convey the haunting fear of his own insignificance, measured besides the immense forces of the elements. To be completely alone, and yet to have to share the unremitting partnership of sea and boat would try the best of us. The author emerges from this undertaking as a chastened and most human companion.