Starboard Eight is an adventure novel. Based on actual events, Starboard Eight is a page-turning tale of intrigue, adventure, and youthful admiration.
1976. When a violent incident proves the final straw for his parents, troubled teenager Jesse is sent away to join the Blue Water School. Here, youngsters in need of direction and guidance live and work aboard sailing ships in the Caribbean. Despite the exotic setting, Jesse faces demanding physical, academic and personal challenges. Along with the colorful collection of fellow teens in 'starboard eight' he encounters The Bermuda Triangle, 'St Elmo's Fire', pirate treasure, a devastating hurricane and a first real romance. His voyage culminates with the American bicentennial celebrations in New York City and an overdue reconciliation with his parents. Based on the author's experiences, this vital adventure offers a powerful evocation of another time and place and a compelling exploration of familial and fraternal relationships
Excerpt
Jesse was satisfied with his time in the Ag Cat. He felt like they were now well acquainted. All that was left to do was land it, tie her down, and slip away.
I can’t believe I’m getting away with it, he thought gleefully. What a perfect day.
Although he had never landed the plane, he had enough hours in taildraggers and wasn’t concerned. He was cruising at fifteen hundred, about eighteen or so miles from home, thinking about how he’d spend the rest of the day in his ‘Vette.
Then the number two cylinder blew, the one right in front of his face, covering the windshield in hot, steaming oil. His adrenaline spiked, but Jesse didn’t panic as he pulled his safety harness tight. The oil pressure was dropping, but not enough to damage the engine—yet. His RPMs were also dropping.
Jesse had two options. He could nurse the Cat back the eighteen miles back home and hope the engine didn’t blow and put him a wet field or turn back to Buck’s strip. Buck’s strip was wide, smooth, and long. It was the first strip that he had soloed on when he was fourteen. He turned back to Buck’s strip.
The oil was burning off the surface of the engine sending oily gray smoke into Jesse’s eyes and mouth. He made his first mistake by turning on the windshield wiper. It smeared the windshield. Now Jesse had to poke his head out the window to see around the oily windshield. He feathered the prop and killed the engine to save it, creating a strange silence.
Professional Reviews
A fantastic experience
Starboard Eight is an adventure novel. The plot is very entertaining and surprising with its scenes that the author narrates perfectly. A school in the Caribbean, where adolescents with behavioral problems live and work, is undoubtedly a very different school from what we are used to imagining.
What was created as punishment for bad behavior, for the teenage protagonist Jesse, has been the beginning of new and wonderful things. The experience of living and working in the middle of the sea is a difficult experience, full of personal challenges.
I was very interested in this reading. The characters and scenes are very well defined, and it has been a light and easy story to follow. I will definitely read this author again
An inspiring adventure story
Author Brian Casey fictionalizes his youth and in doing so creates a story that is not only a fascinating tale, but also a deep dive into nautical facts and a healthy psychological awareness of personal growth. The Prologue relates young Jesse’s terrifying airborne accident as a pilot that initiates his parents’ sending him to the Blue Water School to learning sailing instead of flying! The writing is rich in atmosphere of both the land and the sea – and young Jesse’s worldview. ‘Jesse grew up on the family farm in Northeast Arkansas, four thousand acres of rice, soybeans, and wheat that sweltered under the summer sun. The Mississippi surged thirty miles away on the edge of the Delta, so close that Jesse could almost hear the old river rushing its way to the ocean. Its sound mingled with robin calls and cicadas in every memory Jesse had of that farm.’ Casey’s land painting is equal to his ocean depiction that follows.
But this is a nautical adventure, the experiences of Jesse with the ‘starboard eight’ – his fellow sailing crew – as they encounter the challenges and rewards of learning to sail, discovering such ‘miracles’ as the Bermuda Triangle, hidden treasure, the devastation of hurricanes in the Caribbean (picture the recent Hurricane Ian there!), and the opportunities for personal growth and finding love. The timeframe – 1976 - and the story ends with a refreshed Jesse, reconciling with his father at the Bicentennial in New York City. This is a ‘memoir’ worth exploring – a superbly written novel that encourages the reader to live fully, embracing challenges for growth. Highly recommended
A great adventure story
Starboard Eight is an adventure novel. The plot is very entertaining and surprising with its scenes that the author narrates perfectly. A school in the Caribbean, where adolescents with behavioral problems live and work, is undoubtedly a very different school from what we are used to imagining.
What was created as punishment for bad behavior, for the teenage protagonist Jesse, has been the beginning of new and wonderful things. The experience of living and working in the middle of the sea is a difficult experience, full of personal challenges.
I was very interested in this reading. The characters and scenes are very well defined, and it has been a light and easy story to follow. I will definitely read this author again.
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