Reading the SAILING review

The review in my last post is a scan of the page of the magazine. It presents itself as a small photo -- but if you click on the image, it will enlarge to become quite readable. I don't know how this happens, but I'm pleased it does.

Book review from SAILING magazine --

Two more reviews -- on Amazon, and in Sailing Magazine

I've just learned about two more reviews of the book. One, which I haven't seen, is in Sailing Magazine, published in the US Midwest. I'm in the process of tracking that one down.

The other one is on Amazon.com. Here it is:

A vividly detailed recounting of the joys and perils of navigating the ocean in an aged Norwegian-built ketch,

April 7, 2007

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

"Sailing Away From Winter: A Cruise From Nova Scotia to Florida and Beyond" is the true-life memoir of Canadian columnist Silver Donald Cameron, who dared to make his dreams of a sea voyage come true. With his wife and their beloved dog, he traveled more than three thousand nautical miles in 236 days, visiting towns dotting the coast from Nova Scotia to Florida, crossing the Gulf Stream, experiencing the Bahamas, and much more. A vividly detailed recounting of the joys and perils of navigating the ocean in an aged Norwegian-built ketch, the camaraderie shared with other cruisers, and much more. Highly recommended.

A Nordic fan

This is a photo of Bernt Baltzersen, a Norwegian writer and film-maker, wearing his wolf-skin cap and holding a copy of the book. Bernt is hoping to accompany Erling Viksund, the builder of Magnus who is also the new owner of the boat, on a voyage in the tracks of the Norwegian emigrants of the 19th century. They intend to cruise up the St. Lawrence, through the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi and across to Florida and the Bahamas, starting in May, 2008.

I hope Chicago is strong enough to withstand the arrival of the Vikings.

Halifax Library appearance -- and Sniffing the Coast

I'm getting very slack about maintaining this blog, so I haven't even managed to mention that I'm doing an illustrated talk at the Halifax Public Library on Spring Garden Road on Tuesday, September 18 -- the day after tomorrow -- starting at 7:00 PM.

I also haven't mentioned that my second sailing book, Sniffing the Coast (1993), which has been out of print for a decade or more, is finally available again. It's an account of a 1992 cruise from D'Escousse, Cape Breton, up Northumberland Strait to Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, and then down the west coast of PEI and on to the Magdalen Islands. From the Magdalens my late wife Lulu and I sailed back to eastern PEI and thence home to Isle Madame.

There's a social sub-text to this book, too. Everywhere we went, I found people deeply concerned about the future of the Maritimes and rural Canada -- and profoundly committed to finding a viable and rewarding role for their own communities in a strange new world with web sites, digital everythings, and no fish. It was a fascinating summer.

You can order Sniffing the Coast at www.capebretonbooks.com.