Blue Horizons Dispatches from Distant Seas

by Leonard, Beth

• ISBN13: 9780071479585
• ISBN10: 0071479589
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-09-26
• Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press

Summary

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARD FOR LITERATURESail to the ends of the earth and back again without leaving your favorite reading chairWhen Beth Leonard and her partner, Evans Starzinger, returned from a three-year, 35,000 mile circumnavigation, they thought they were done with offshore voyaging. But neither realized how irrevocably they had been changed by their experience, nor how irresistible the siren song of the sea would prove. In comparison, life ashore seemed dull and monochrome, and within months, Beth knew she had to go back to sea in order to remain true to the person she had become.Four years later they set out on their 47-foot aluminum sloopHawkfor a journey that lasted six years and took them more than 50,000 miles. They voyaged to Newfoundland, Iceland, Norway, the Caribbean, Ireland, Scotland, Cape Horn, New Zealand, the South Pacific, British Columbia--to the ends of the earth and back.Blue Horizonsis Beth Leonard's record of that journey. Compiled from her popular columns inBlue Water Sailingmagazine, which she wrote along the way,Blue Horizonsis more than an adventure saga, more than the log of an extended passage. As in all great travel writing, it's the product of an insatiable hunger to explore the world, and in so doing to explore one's own soul. It is, says Beth, "about pulling your dreams over the horizon to you, one sail change, one course correction at a time."But this is no dreamer's tale. Beth Leonard is both sailor and writer, well qualified to deal with and describe blue water voyaging. Written with the vivid precision and practical eye for detail that made her first book,The Voyager's Handbook, such a success,Blue Horizonsis a collection of compelling vignettes that encapsulate life at sea with all its dangers and epiphanies, its disillusions and delights. Her observations are as sharp as salt air and her prose as informed as it is insightful and entertaining.Beth also brings toBlue Horizonsa uniquely feminine perspective, a combination of empathy, charm, and lyric grace. Her pages are suffused with emotion and a strong sense of immediacy. You're with Beth and Evans asHawkpokes into a lonely and deserted outport on Newfoundland's barren northeast coast, and as they await hurricane Lenny in Antigua. And you sympathize as she burrows deep into her tilting berth, seeking that one, elusive interval of comfort that will bring sleep on a pounding windward passage, only to be dashed awake by the cold shock of a rogue wave spilling into her bunk.Blue Horizonsis a rare journey, one to be savored by sailors and armchair adventurers alike.Praise for Blue Horizons:"In her new, wonderful book, Beth Leonard shows us a world in which 'perfection' is not bland, easy, escapist comfort in a crowded tropical harbor but a more insecure yet more rewarding existence of constant challenge--cold waters, rocky coves, old fishing villages, demanding seamanship, and the evolution of two sailors trying to manage a boat and also their own relationship." --John Rousmaniere, author ofFastnet, Force 10,After the Storm, andThe Annapolis Book of Seamanship"Let Beth Leonard inspire you to sail around the world, explore the high latitudes, or discover your own capacity for adventure. Each nugget in this 'dream becomes reality' series of revelations is worth a thousand pictures." --Gary Jobson, ESPN sailing commentator, America's Cup Hall of Famer, and author ofGary Jobson's Championship Sailing"Blue Horizonschronicles a remarkable adventure through some of the globe's most inhospitable waters. . . . Every account in this collection provides a taste and sometimes a feast. It is wise, perceptive, wonderfu

Author Biography

Beth A. Leonard has won awards from the Ocean Cruising Club and the Cruising Club of America. A popular writer, she lectures around the country. She and her husband have circumnavigated the globe twice under sail, logging 85,000 blue water miles.