A Dip in the Ocean

How would 124 days at sea, on your own in a small rowing boat, affect your view of the world? 23 year old Sarah Outen probably did not realise quite how significantly her perspective would shift until a few days after her epic voyage across the Indian Ocean in 2009. Having survived a terrifying encounter with a Mauritian reef and now on dry land, she looked across the cove where the little craft was moored and saw her boat in the same way as her families and friends had seen it: small and vulnerable. Not so during the voyage itself. On the ocean it had been the unbreakable centre of her universe, the shell which had saved her life and which kept on going as she guided it from East to West. “Now” she reflected as she looked across the small harbour “I understood why everyone had worried.” It was a fleeting moment: rowing across the Indian Ocean will be the defining event of her life. Having capsized twice and battled against the unforgiving Westerlies, she came to feel most alive at times of high risk and danger – the points at which absolutely nothing can be taken for granted. A Dip in the Ocean is a classic adventure story – an inspiring account of success against the odds (and worth reading just for that), but it is also the story of a transformation from one state of mind to another, as her consciousness is elevated to a level that few of us can achieve as the result of an extreme experiential adventure.