Seven Seas on a Shoestring
Subtitle: Sailing All Seas in the 'Idle Hour'
Publisher: Harper & Bros Publishing
Published: 1938
Place of publication: New York
Copyright date: 1938
Other titles: Sailing All Seas in the Idle Hour
Description: Probably one of the great 'unknown' small boat adventures that you've never heard of, Dwight Long and his ship, the Idle Hour. It's a little known but true tale of note.
   Straight out of college with the 1930's Great Depression in full swing, Long decides to embark on a boyhood dream before he enters the world of work. He will but a tiny 32' Alaskan fishing ketch and sail it around the world.
   It's a great scheme, except that Long has virtually no blue water sailing experience, no navigational training, and except for Joshua Sloan and a minuscule cadre of sailing daredevils, few have ever taken such a small vessel successfully around the world. Also, Long has no financing and is short of enough money to pay for such a journey.
   At a glance, Long can't possibly bring such an audacious plan to reality. But, apparently, Long is such an intrepid individual with such a flare of friendly optimism that he actually pulls his plan together and sets off into the Pacific.  Eventually he manages to end up with a Bora Boran companion, Timi, and a ship dog, Hugo.
   All the classic sailing adventure themes are here...storms at sea, near wrecks, debilitating sickness and injury, exotic and beautiful locales, catastrophic boat damage, contact with Stone Age peoples, pirates, forgotten Polynesian islands, corrupt officials, endless sunsets, strange and friendly people. 
   But Long's experience is unique. He has come as few have come before. No huge yacht or giant merchant ship with huge cargoes and dozens of crewmen brought Long. His experience is as a lone Westerner with his Tahitian sidekick and Hugo the dog in tow. A manner if ever seen by any of these people. Thus rare doors of opportunity were opened to him like few before or few after. It is a true blue water Route 66 tale that went on for more than3 years.
   Long lives to tell the tale and show the many photographs that he took of his time with the Idle Hour, which are shown in this edition.