Description
In 1984, Kent, a philosophy professor, and Pam, a potter, abandoned their careers, sold their house and possessions, and took off with their sons, aged ten and fourteen, in search of adventure and an alternative lifestyle. Inspired by Kent’s memories of the remote Colombian village where he served in the Peace Corps and books like Thoreau’s Walden and E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful, these Midwesterners with no experience of the sea or sailing naively decided a sailboat would be the perfect vehicle for their new life. Relying solely on celestial navigation (before GPS), they sailed across the Atlantic in a thirty-eight-foot ketch with a book in one hand and a sextant in the other. Pam’s letters and Kent’s stories document the grand experiment of their years at sea, their risky overland travels, and the struggles that threatened to pull them apart but brought them closer together. Contains maps, photos, a timeline, and a glossary.
