杏吧原创

Why do lone sailors do it? 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 the faintest idea,鈥� admits Amyr Kink, introducing Between Two Poles (Bloomsbury, 拢16.99 ISBN 0 7475 1972 2) a diary of his two-year trip to Spitsbergen and the Antarctic. Nor, at the end, has the reader. Except maybe in the moment near Drake鈥檚 Passage, where he sees the 鈥済reen flash鈥� which appears just occasionally, as the last splinter of sunset disappears. 鈥淚 yelled: 鈥業 saw it! I saw it!鈥� A fraction of a second that was worth the whole journey,鈥� he writes. But, just as suddenly, the inspiration is gone. The rest though sharply descriptive of nature and marine technology alike, is oddly distant, as if he just wanted to be alone.