Every once in a while a book comes along that you just can’t put down. Occasionally, you’ll come across one that also inspires you. Manning-up in Alaska, the sleeper-hit promising to top Best Seller charts, entertains us like a day at the races and, in the end, encourages us to lend a hand to cancer survivors.
Dick Drechsler’s fast-paced sea tale is a riveting good read and an entertaining adventure book. At times we laugh; at other times we hold our breath. Regardless of whether we’re sailors or landlubbers, he holds our wide-eyed attention with this action-packed tale as we sail with him and his wife up the coast from Mexico to Alaska aboard his 47-foot sailboat, Last Resort.
The amazing truth is that lifelong sailor and hard-driving entrepreneur Dick Drechsler didn’t expect to live, much less cruise 2600 miles of ocean. After neck and throat cancer treatment confined him to taking nourishment from a feeding tube, he lost his energy, humor and will to survive. He was forced to retire; he was unable to travel. Worst of all, he was no longer able to enjoy his passion for sailing.
In this non-fiction account, Manning-up in Alaska takes us through the wild romp that is Dick’s life, up until the moment he slams into his own mortality. Despite a knock-down to his health and the resulting disabilities following cancer treatment, he refused to give up. His story of regaining partial use of his throat; pursuing a lifelong dream to cruise in a sailboat and discovering a new, exciting avocation is a page-turner in every regard.
If you’re like us, you’ll grit your teeth, together with Dick, when a malfunction creates a flood resulting in a life-and-death struggle at sea. You’ll have a chuckle toward the end of the book when he reveals how he came to name Manning-up. Like us, you’ll come to marvel at the magnificence of Alaska’s untapped wildness, recognize your own wanderlust in the populace of its waterways and dream of casting off, bound for Alaska, yourself one day.
In the end, you’ll appreciate how Dick came to dedicate his life and his book to helping other cancer survivors enjoy life and even thrive. You can read more about the Sail Through Cancer Foundation and order your copy by visiting http://www.sailthrucancer.org.
Sail Through Cancer Foundation
Dick and his team of supporters are well on their way to launching the Sail Through Cancer Foundation. The effort is a direct result of Dick’s own dramatic recovery from cancer and its treatment, which he attributes to the active, rigorous cruising lifestyle. The organization’s mission is to encourage boat owners to volunteer their time and the use of their boats – an “Armada of Hope “as it’s called – to enrich cancer survivors’ lives. It is the Foundation’s premise that even a brief break from the rigors of cancer treatment and recovery can have a profound effect on those afflicted, particularly children, their families, caregivers and community of friends and associates.
To provide this respite, the group will recruit and assist a network of volunteer boat owners, skippers, and those involved in the boating community to simply take Survivors and their supporters for a day-sail. By individual skippers volunteering a few hours of their time, the Armada of Hope can provide respite and relief in the form of a day on the water to enrich the human experience.
In addition, the Foundation will provide a platform to inspire those diagnosed with cancer through stories of recovery and perseverance in beating cancer and leading normal, even exceptional lives, thereafter.
After overcoming long odds and cruising from Mexico to Alaska in their Catalina 470, Last Resort, Dick and his wife Sharon received the Bluewater Cruising Association Coastal Award and were inducted into the Catalina Offshore Cruisers Hall of Fame. Dick’s idea for helping other cancer sufferers by forming the Sail Through Cancer Foundation http://www.sailthrucancer.org began in the summer of 2008.
...trout that doesn't think two jumps and several runs ahead of the average fisherman is mighty apt to get fried.
Beatrice Cook
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