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demonpreacher's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
4.5
saltybrieeze's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
mnbvcxz22's review against another edition
This is the 3rd book I have read by Michael J. Tougias. He never disappoints. A riveting tale of adventure on the high (and I do mean HIGH) seas.
the_fabric_of_words's review
5.0
We've read a few of Tougias' non-fiction sea rescue books, and again he captures the sheer, gut-wrenching force of a whipped up Atlantic ocean in a storm sailors and rescuers must pit themselves against to survive.
This time, it's to rescue three sailors in a sailboat the US Coast Guard isn't even aware is on the sea because of a registration glitch with an older emergency beacon system. When the Sean Seamour II is caught in storms just outside the Gulf Stream, enormous waves flip the boat and the new emergency system sinks and never transmits a signal! But the captain has an older system, which works as designed, and becomes their lifeline. Unfortunately, it carries the registration of the captain's previous boat, one he'd sold a long time ago before installing it in the Sean Seamour II.
It takes rescuers a while to figure out who they're headed out to rescue, but eventually they reach the captain's wife, and she's able to connect the dots.
Meanwhile, enormous waves roll the boat several times, injuring one of the men and near-drowning them. They wait until the absolute last moment to abandon ship. They're a dark blip on a dark ocean in dark, stormy skies, and yet the Coast Guard helicopter manages to spot them and lower a rescue swimmer to reach their lifeboat. I had no idea that was even possible!
You never know until the rescue is complete who's going to make it and who won't. We've read a few of Tougias' books and know the ocean can be deadly.
I'm not spoiling the end. You'll have to read to find out. But this was one of those seat-gripping stories because it's based on a true story.
Enjoy!
Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students?
Visit my blog, The Fabric of Words, for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
This time, it's to rescue three sailors in a sailboat the US Coast Guard isn't even aware is on the sea because of a registration glitch with an older emergency beacon system. When the Sean Seamour II is caught in storms just outside the Gulf Stream, enormous waves flip the boat and the new emergency system sinks and never transmits a signal! But the captain has an older system, which works as designed, and becomes their lifeline. Unfortunately, it carries the registration of the captain's previous boat, one he'd sold a long time ago before installing it in the Sean Seamour II.
It takes rescuers a while to figure out who they're headed out to rescue, but eventually they reach the captain's wife, and she's able to connect the dots.
Meanwhile, enormous waves roll the boat several times, injuring one of the men and near-drowning them. They wait until the absolute last moment to abandon ship. They're a dark blip on a dark ocean in dark, stormy skies, and yet the Coast Guard helicopter manages to spot them and lower a rescue swimmer to reach their lifeboat. I had no idea that was even possible!
You never know until the rescue is complete who's going to make it and who won't. We've read a few of Tougias' books and know the ocean can be deadly.
I'm not spoiling the end. You'll have to read to find out. But this was one of those seat-gripping stories because it's based on a true story.
Enjoy!
Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students?
Visit my blog, The Fabric of Words, for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
heykellyjensen's review
I didn't think this would be a book I'd finish, let alone speed through, but Tougias tells a compelling tale about three men who attempted to sail the Gulf Stream and the tragedy of hitting one of the worst storms imaginable (despite all of their preparations). Fast-paced, engaging, and with just enough personal history about the men and their experience to keep me going. Like a well-written adventure/survival story, except real.
mkat303's review against another edition
4.0
A 47 foot sailboat in the Atlantic is filling with water. It looks like the EPIRB is broken. The waves are averaging 50 feet. The three sailors will eventually wind up on a life raft in 80 foot waves. 80 foot waves! The story of the rescue is incredible. Will the helicopter go down? Will the rescue swimmer make it?
Great book. I've read a lot of sailboat disaster books and this really one stands out. (Along with Deborah Scaling Kiley's book, but that's another story.) I like the I learned a bit about storms in the Gulf Stream, sharks and lifeboats and a few other things.
Great book. I've read a lot of sailboat disaster books and this really one stands out. (Along with Deborah Scaling Kiley's book, but that's another story.) I like the I learned a bit about storms in the Gulf Stream, sharks and lifeboats and a few other things.
venkyloquist's review against another edition
4.0
Imagine you are the captain of a 47 foot sail-boat that has just been swallowed whole by a roiling cauldron of waves. Escaping the sinking boat by the skin of your teeth, you and your two man crew barely manage to haul yourselves into a torn raft that just about manages to stay afloat. Howling monster waves that reach an incredible eighty feet buffet the raft, slamming into them with a force hitherto unseen and toss the survivors around like ragged dolls. Just when you have spent your strength righting the boat for a third time, the dreaded signs of hypothermia begin to set in. Before even getting into the raft, you have broken ten ribs after getting rammed into and by various moveable objects in the ship’s cockpit only moments before the damn thing sunk like a stone. If this whole scenario reads like something straight out of an apocalyptic playbook, then brace yourself. This was exactly what was experienced by the crew of Sean Seamour II when three intrepid sailors attempted a transatlantic crossing and were pitchforked into a storm of indescribable proportions just off the Gulf Stream. Their nightmare experience is captured in stunning detail by Michael J. Tougias in his rip roarer of a book, “A Storm Too Soon.”
In a brilliantly researched book, bestselling author Michael Tougias, narrates the hair raising and singularly terrifying experiences of Rudy Snel, Jean Pierre “JP” de Lutz, and Ben Frye in a manner that will have the reader shell shocked, poleaxed and stupefied. JP the intrepid captain of Sean Seamour II was no stranger to pain and trauma even before the Gulf Stream incident. Having a sadistic and abusive ogre for a father, he had a pot of boiling water poured over him when he was just ten years old. Making it look ‘accidental’, it was a devious strategy formulated by his father to ensure that his estranged wife and JP’s stepmother Betty gets back to him. The agonizing time spent in the burns ward in a hospital, after being in coma for three months, transformed the boy’s attitude to life. The sea became his succour, strength and savior. JP’s dream was to cross the Atlantic from Florida to France in the Sean Seamour II After a careful distillation of candidates, JP hits upon Rudy Snel, and Ben Frye as his designated crew members. The plan is simple, to sail in May, beating the onset of the hurricane season. The sailing path would be northeast toward Bermuda before turning due east toward Europe.
The fate of the voyagers being toyed around by the punishing waves now solely rests on a US Coast Guard crew manning a HH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter. Pilots Nevada Smith and Aaron Nelson, Officer Scott Higgins and rescue diver ATS2 Drew Dazzo wage a battle against time and put their own lives and limbs at risk in what can be termed an audacious, if not an impossible rescue. Tougias describes in a fast, spine chilling and goose bumps inducing manner the sequence of rescue, the near misses and ultimate triumph. The hairs at the nape of the neck bristle with trepidation and excitement as the reader is also immersed into the mountainous waves, wreaking carnage. Every mouthful of sea water swallowed by the trio in the raft and the rescue diver induces a gasp in the reader and every successful rescue, makes her applaud, hoot, holler and whistle.
“A Storm Too Soon”, a riveting, arresting and deserving homage to valour, optimism, camaraderie and the innate human attribute of selflessness!
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In a brilliantly researched book, bestselling author Michael Tougias, narrates the hair raising and singularly terrifying experiences of Rudy Snel, Jean Pierre “JP” de Lutz, and Ben Frye in a manner that will have the reader shell shocked, poleaxed and stupefied. JP the intrepid captain of Sean Seamour II was no stranger to pain and trauma even before the Gulf Stream incident. Having a sadistic and abusive ogre for a father, he had a pot of boiling water poured over him when he was just ten years old. Making it look ‘accidental’, it was a devious strategy formulated by his father to ensure that his estranged wife and JP’s stepmother Betty gets back to him. The agonizing time spent in the burns ward in a hospital, after being in coma for three months, transformed the boy’s attitude to life. The sea became his succour, strength and savior. JP’s dream was to cross the Atlantic from Florida to France in the Sean Seamour II After a careful distillation of candidates, JP hits upon Rudy Snel, and Ben Frye as his designated crew members. The plan is simple, to sail in May, beating the onset of the hurricane season. The sailing path would be northeast toward Bermuda before turning due east toward Europe.
The fate of the voyagers being toyed around by the punishing waves now solely rests on a US Coast Guard crew manning a HH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter. Pilots Nevada Smith and Aaron Nelson, Officer Scott Higgins and rescue diver ATS2 Drew Dazzo wage a battle against time and put their own lives and limbs at risk in what can be termed an audacious, if not an impossible rescue. Tougias describes in a fast, spine chilling and goose bumps inducing manner the sequence of rescue, the near misses and ultimate triumph. The hairs at the nape of the neck bristle with trepidation and excitement as the reader is also immersed into the mountainous waves, wreaking carnage. Every mouthful of sea water swallowed by the trio in the raft and the rescue diver induces a gasp in the reader and every successful rescue, makes her applaud, hoot, holler and whistle.
“A Storm Too Soon”, a riveting, arresting and deserving homage to valour, optimism, camaraderie and the innate human attribute of selflessness!
Share this:
amylandranch's review
3.0
If you like survival stories, then this is the book for you. Three sailors get caught in one of the worst storms with 80 feet waves and they send out a call for help. The Coast Guard answers and what they do to rescue them is amazing. The story moves at a good pace and kept my interest. Both teens and adults would enjoy this true story.