Dolphins & Penn: Tacking Through Life

Join Penn Clarke on his journey, helped by 70 photos and illustrations in this exciting new book Dolphins & Penn: Tacking Through Life. Dolphins, sailing, and around the world traveling are Penn's passions. He has studied dolphins since a close encounter with three of them in the Bahamas in 1976.

Penn tells about his extensive volunteer work with dolphins in the wild as well as two managed situations. His U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton sail captain's license since 1983 helps him perform tasks on the water for scientists like Brian Balmer who study effects of oil spills, red tides, and super fund site pollutions on wild dolphins. For one month in 1987 Penn learned to use sign language to communicate with four managed dolphins at the University of Hawaii. Penn founded the non-profit Dolphin Relief and Research in 2009 to financially assist scientists in learning more about these intelligent marine mammals.

There is no sailing straight into the wind. It is changing course, steering into and through the wind – tacking – that keeps Penn and his Mystic Turtle sailboats moving forward. Travel with Penn on his 38-foot sailboat as he does a 7-month journey named the Great Loop Trip through the United States and Canada. Meet people who are lifelong friends that Penn first met on one of his 4 trips traveling around the world. Enjoy other travels that Penn calls Side Trips like his experiences in Australia and Greece multiple times or Siberia in 1991.

Through his words, experience Penn as a full time live-aboard sailor for 15 years. On September 10, 2001, Penn unsuspecting sailed down the Hudson River into NY Harbor. The tragedy of 9/11 unfolds with his eyewitness account. See photos taken from his sailboat including one of a plane he thought was going to take out the Empire State Building while both towers burned below. Visit his website DolphinRnR to see complete videos taken from his sailboat including both towers collapsing and learn more about dolphins.

Penn Clarke is passionate about dolphins, sailing, and travel. He has studied dolphins since a close encounter with three of them in the Bahamas in 1976. Penn is the founder of the non-profit Dolphin Relief and Research. His volunteer efforts include work with scientists studying the health of dolphins on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts. Penn also gave time alongside researchers working with managed dolphins using sign language and studying their whistles and behaviors.

Tacking through life with its joys and trials is made better by the dolphins Penn encounters while living aboard his sailboats for 15 years, traveling around the world four times, taking the Great Loop Trip, and his numerous side trips. Penn continues to revisit longtime friends across the globe. In his writings, he brings together fifty years of daily diaries and a lifetime of memories to share stories like his witness to the 9/11 tragedy, even the collapse of both towers, videoed from his sailboat.

There is no sailing straight into the wind. It is changing course, steering into and through the wind – tacking – that keeps Penn and his Mystic Turtle sailboats moving forward. Dolphins & Penn: Tacking Through Life takes you along his journey.