Originally published in 1999, Philbrick’s warm and engaging memoir is a personal odyssey of sorts, charting the author’s adjustment to midlife changes. The narrative unfolds during the spring of 1992, when Philbrick was transitioning from a journalist into a historian and a stay-at-home-dad. He found himself craving the excitement he’d experienced when he was twenty-two and had won a national sailing championship. Why not try it again? In vividly evocative prose, Philbrick describes the lush natural beauty of the inlets, bays, and tidal creeks where he sailed his Sunfish and reflects on his own life, making the commitment to writing that would lead to books including Mayflower, Why Read Moby-Dick?, and the National Book Award-winning In the Heart of the Sea.
