I spent my life working in management in the real world, first in the Hospitality and Resort Industry and then opening and operating two wonderful Art Gallerys one in Kitteridge,Colorado and one in Anchorage, Alaska, but always dreaming of two things beyond the realm of those concrete and mortar businesses.
My first dream was to sail around the world and the second was to write books.
Then the failure of one (sailing around the world); led to the success in the other; plus there is a love story too.......
In September of 2005 I set out to sail around the world in a 41' Morgan sailboat, that's a very small home, but a very large sailboat to handle, for a relatively inexperienced sailor. And trust me my inexperience presented itself dramatically and repeatedly.
I found out very quickly (given the vision of retrospect) but very specifically, in 6 months, 3750 nautical miles and after 2 major storms and several varied other catastrophes; that sailing around the world would take a much better skill set than I possessed, tons more money than I thought, a higher tolerance for boredom, and a great deal of patience (which I do not possess), not to mention unbreakable bones, knees, sails, winches, biminis, dodgers, props, dinghy motors and engines.
It would test me and introduce me to great characters and some terrific tales told after the sun had set and over good wine at anchor with friends I'd never met before and might never see again. The journey gave me the time to imagine plot lines and to write them in my head in the cockpit on watch and then later, at anchor on the laptop. I wrote Refraction and about my thoughts and discoveries, along with everything else that danced through my head as halyards clanged and I utilized my sea-legs and fabricated such wonderful "What ifs?"
Those mind meanderings on both stormy and too calm seas have produced the foder for three books and given me a lifetime of memories and recollections of sunsets dappled in tranquility and waves pounding in fury. It was a time of amazing contrasts.
Refraction will be the first in print, but I have two more in the works.
Often I'm asked if I would 'try' to sail the world again, after all of my mishaps and failing to complete the journey?
I laugh and think, absolutely! Failure to make the destinations I had planned; doesn't mean I didn't wind up exactly where I was intended to go. God has a great sense of style and humor.
Life may begin at forty, when you make some bold decisions, mess up a few hundred times and then slide into your fifties, stumble, fall on your face and then find your bliss........
It's a process that I plunged headlong into, over and over, and I'm not done yet. I will always be up for a new adventure. I still want to climb Kilimanjaro......
The moral of the story as I learned it in foul weather gear, at the helm of a boat too big for me to handle, while cold, wet, scared and yet vividly alive, was this; just keep going for it, never give up, but take what you learn from each experience and never be afraid to move forward and take yet another chance. The lessons and adventure in every journey are always worth the splat!
I sold the boat a year ago, but the dream of writing is coming true now and I'm a very blessed woman, alive on dry land but still living my dreams.
Thank you so much for reading my book, that makes you a large part of my dream. A writer is nothing until there is a reader.
Now I hope that you enjoy my book and I wish that all your dreams will come true too.....