Cork Boat

Before we left for our trip to Portugal in August, I searched our local library catalog for books about, or set in, Portugal.  The sole book to pop up was Steve Berry's thriller The Third Secret, about Fatima.  I did re-read it before our trip, and I also read David Liss' novel The Day of Atonement, set in eighteenth century Lisbon.  It wasn't until the final day of our Viking Cruise down the Douro River that Patricia, our Portuguese Cruise Director, recommended John Pollack's non-fiction Cork Boat (#689) that I found the book I had been looking for all along.


John Pollack has impressive Washington D. C. speech writing credentials both on Capitol Hill and in the White House, but ever since he was a young boy and started collecting the used corks from wine bottles, he had nurtured a dream to build a boat entirely out of corks sturdy enough to launch in some unspecified body of water.  Cork Boat tells the story of how he and a motley group of volunteers finally made that dream come true, sailing it along the Douro River from the Spanish border all the way across Portugal to the Atlantic Ocean.  It didn't turn out to be quite the leisurely sail through wine country, sampling grapes and girls as he went that he had pictured.  In the end, he was challenged both physically and mentally, and became a media celebrity in Portugal while he was at it.
It's a wonderful story.  I was constantly amazed that somewhere along the line he didn't strangle Garth, his collaborator on the project, or that he cajoled enough people into contributing time, talent, sponsorship and corks to make it all happen. 


At the time Pollack voyaged down the Douro in Portugal, the country had not yet gone through the severe economic downturn in 2008.  It is still suffering from that financial disaster, and tourism is playing a large role in Portugal's economic recovery.  The riverboats plying the waters today along the same route - Porto to Barca de Alva and back again - provide opportunities to showcase the vineyards and orchards lining the Valley along with traditional methods of baking and cooking that Pollack describes in his memoir.  The scenery is every bit as spectacular as he describes. For me, it was a delight to read about places we had just been recently, and to see them again in my mind's eye. (Granted, sometimes with a little help from the many pictures I took on this trip!)  If you've ever been to this part of the world, or are thinking about going, read this book.  If that's not possible, you can still travel there in your mind and imagination with John Pollack.  You'll enjoy the time spent in his company.