Their Pain, Our Gain

As a lifetime risk taker, author Randall Sullivan decided in his seventh decade that the time was right to (try to) cross the Columbia River Bar. This confluence of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean has been the site of more shipwrecks than wrinkles on a 70 year old's face. He cajoled his old (and by "old" I mean longtime as well as also 70) friend Ray Thomas to accompany him on this--what shall we call it?--lark? suicide mission? voyage of self-discovery? Whatever the label, they were not only going to take on this devil in watery clothing but do it in a trimaran--one specially fitted with pedals, no less.

As the story for their prep and search for the "perfect day" (to die?) unfolds, it is interspersed alternately with tales of far more seaworthy ships going down in the same spot, over and over and over, and with the unfortunate bonding backstories of both men having been raised by abusive fathers. It becomes more and more clear that these two men had a history of taking on increasingly difficult challenges, maybe to erase the challenge that couldn't be conquered--their own painful childhoods.

If you like a true adventure story, tales of maritime derring-do (and death), and/or self-exploration, this book is a winner. And spoiler alert: they don't die.