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.

Peter Bonsey: An Experienced Cruiser Comments

Peter and Sylvia Bonsey are experienced cruisers with a double crossing of the Atlantic behind them. Peter recently made two comments about Sailing Away from Winter which particularly pleased me. Here they are:

All the way through the book I was thinking that it was something in the nature of the medieval Peregrinatio, the pilgrimage undertaken towards the end of a career as much for its own sake as to reach some holy city..Curiously not long before your book arrived I had been reading William Wey's account of his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella. Nothing ever changes. He got to Plymouth on 1st April 1456 and then had to wait till 17th May before they could set sail! No doubt they had a succession of South Westerlies, or who knows, trolls even. I believe this idea is well rooted in Hindu culture as well.

The other thing I particularly valued about the book was that you described cruising as it really is: when it's good it's very very good, and when it's bad it's horrid. People who've never done it don't understand this. People see the palm trees and the crystal waters, but they don't begin to understand the skill and effort required to stay safely on top of those crystal waters. Most sailing books woefully underplay this, and to the extent that the Great Storm Chapter is required the subtext is always what supermen the author and his crew were to be able to cope with it. I think yours is the first cruising book I've ever read where the author had the courage to admit that he wanted to turn back because this wasn't being fun any more. Yet I don't believe there is a single yachtie who hasn't felt that at one time or another.

And, of course, you prove the sense of the old adage: if you find a good crew, marry her! Or
him I suppose one has to say these days.

CBC Radio interview on BC Almanac

My interview with Mark Forsythe of BC Almanac will be aired at 12:40 Pacific time today, June 15.

I assume it will also be accessible via the Internet. The BC Almanac website is here: http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/index.jsp?program=BC+Almanac

Vancouver promotion, May 29-June 4

As I write this, we're packing for a trip to Vancouver which combines book promotion and family visits. On the book promotion front, there are three events:

May 29, 9:00-10:00 AM: live appearance on Studio 4, with Fanny Kiefer, on Shaw TV.

June 1, 8:15: Illustrated presentation at the False Creek Yacht Club in Vancouver.

June 4, 10:30 AM: Interview with Mark Forsythe of Almanac, the CBC Radio noon show. I don't know when it will be broadcst.

In addition, I may be signing some books in Kelowna at Mosaic Books on June 5, though nothing has formally been arranged.

And a news bulletin: Magnus has been sold to Erling Viksund, the Norwegian boatbuilder who built her 35 years ago. Erling intends to do a long cruise in North America beginning in 2008.