This is not the best book available on the 1998 Sydney to Hobart disaster - The Proving Ground and Fatal Storm are better reads. However, the weakness of this book is also its strength. Whitmont jumps from boat to boat, rarely dwelling on one story before jumping into the next. It is jarring to the reader and means that it doesn't deliver the depth of the aforementioned books. What it does do though, is effectively recreate the pace, chaos and scale of the emergency. ( )