VIDEOS : Asail on the Sea of Life: One Man’s Epic Voyage

SAILING ALL SEAS (Mystic Seaport Museum Video, 60 minutes, 1991).

A lot of people dream about sailing around the world in their own boat. This is a video by one man who did it--more than 50 years ago--and had the foresight to film his adventure, in color. His feat, combined with the technical achievement involved in transferring this early color film to videotape, provides fascinating viewing.

Dwight Long began his six-year odyssey in 1934 aboard his 32-foot ketch, Idyll Hour, in Seattle. He sailed to Los Angeles, Hawaii, Tahiti, the Penrhyn Islands, American Samoa, New Zealand, Australia, New Guinea, Bali, across the Bay of Bengal and to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). There are scenes of people and places of a bygone era, untarnished by the glitz of modern tourism.

The video then follows his trip through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal to Cairo, Egypt, and along the Nile to Port Said, Abu Simbel and the pre-dam site at Aswan.

Long tells how he made the hazardous trip through the Mediterranean, past Sicily and Gibraltar during a gale and amid increasing rumors of war.

He journeys up the coast of Spain to a warm reception in England, where the video follows him as he sails up the Thames past some of London’s landmarks. There’s a visit to Falmouth on the Isle of Wight before he makes his last eastern Atlantic stop at the picturesque Portuguese isle of Madeira.

Soon after he arrives in New York, Long’s boat is smashed against a seawall during a hurricane. The tragedy is caught in a newsreel clip. But Long repairs the vessel and continues his global circumnavigation to the West Indies and through the Panama Canal. He stops at the Galapagos and Marquesas islands before heading northeast to the whale haven at Scammon Lagoon in Baja California.

Aerial views show his arrival in Los Angeles Harbor. He then sails north to San Francisco, Newport, Ore., and on to a tumultuous greeting in Seattle.

Tapes are available from the Mystic Seaport Museum, Box 6000, Route 27, Mystic, Conn. 06355-0990, (800) 445-0711, Ext. 279 or 289; $24.95.

TONGA (World Travel Marketing, 32 minutes, 1990).

Barry and Corinne Smedley love to travel and have videotaped their offbeat journeys with enthusiasm, if little travel video professionalism. Although the film quality on this video generally is good, the narration is amateurish and the responses made to conversations held are barely audible.

The Smedleys’ charter-boat tour of the islands, however, offers some beautiful scenery not often found on video and some information helpful to others interested in charter-boating in the area.

Highlights include a dinghy tour into cathedral-like Swallow’s Cave, where thousands of birds nest, and underwater tours of the grotto-like Mariner’s Cave and a coral garden. There are scenes of the capital, Nuku’alofa, including the International Dateline Hotel and the Royal Palace, and aerial views of the Vava’u group and the town of Neiafu.

Available from World Travel Marketing, 4565 Ruffner St., Suite 103, San Diego 92111, (619) 560- 7687; $9.95.

PACIFIC FRONTIERS (Reader’s Digest Videos, 60 minutes, 1991).

Nine photogenic attractions are featured in this video that travels from Death Valley up the West Coast to Alaska and over to Hawaii.

Tales of Indians, pioneers and gold-seekers in Death Valley are illustrated by scenes of sand dunes, ghost towns, hardy desert life and old film of the 20-mule borax team. Also in California are visits to the giant trees of Sequoia and the rugged coastal beauty of Big Sur and Point Lobos, with early film of the construction of Highway 1. There is also spectacular Yosemite, with its grand rock domes, cliffs meadows.

In Washington, the video focuses on the great white monolith of Mt. Rainier and the tranquil green wonderland of Olympic National Forest.

The awesome calving of huge glaciers are the highlights of a visit to Glacier Bay, Alaska, along with scenes of wildlife.

Tapes are available from the International Video Network, 2242 Camino Ramon, San Ramon 94583, (800) 767-4486, Ext. 301; $24.95.