Love With A Chance of Drowning, by traveler and writer Torre DeRoche, is Torre’s true story about her adventure sailing across the Pacific with a man she barely knew, and her family had never met. Oh, and she has a fear of the ocean.
This story hooked me on the first page. Torre left Australia to expat for a year in California and while here met a man from Argentina who had a dream of sailing across the Pacific. During her whirlwind affair with him, he convinced her to sail with him. She talks about his subtle ways he convinced her to come (such as leaving memoirs from other people who have sailed the Pacific on the coffee table), how she taught herself about sailing, and how once she hit the water, her fears and seasickness sometimes paralyzed her.
I was especially intrigues with this book, since I left on a one-way ticket to South America, despite many people telling me I’m crazy, then falling in love in colombia and marrying a man my family had never met. So I relate to this story personally, as anyone who has ever followed, or wanted to follow, their heart despite society being against it.
Torre holds nothing back about her thoughts and feelings before and during her trip, from being so violently seasick she needs to change her underwear, to the exquisite landscapes she encounters once they hit the Pacific islands. She writes honestly about her fears and eventually overcoming them (at least in short spurts) and about the hardships, like leaking boats and being stranded at one point, along the way.
This book is an inspiring tale of following your heart despite everyone (including your own brain) telling you are crazy. As many times as she almost quit and turned back, she would feel the rush of accomplishment and eventually decide to push forward into what would be an adventure of a lifetime.
This book is amazing for anyone who wants to travel, adventure, or who is struggling to just ‘go for it’ against everyone telling them not to. It is hard to tell much about this book without ruining the beautiful visions and realistic horrors Torre implants in your imagination. But the whole time you are reading this you are reminded that this is a true story. Torre’s adventure is almost to surreal to believe, yet it is 100% true.
I highly recommend this book to anyone of any age, and I dare you not to get sucked in by the end of page 1.
You can buy it in paperback or on Kindle.
Read it and be inspired.
About Dani Blanchette
