Category: Sailing Memoirs

June’s Bustin’ Out All Over

Who wants to sail or paddle down the Rio Grande?

In April, we quoted Pam writing about the dinghy under the bed, when she was dreaming of taking off to sea again and leaving the South Dakota winter behind.

At the end of April, we finally got the old dinghy out on the Rio Grande.  Getting it from the back of the car and carrying it to the water and out again was the hard part. Our trip was rather short at about 45 minutes from launch to take-out, but we did it!  Paddling down the Rio Grande, we’d never know we were in the midst of a city of over 500,000.  It was a little taste of life on the water. Then we went to San Francisco where waves rolled in from the Pacific.  I made a short video, hoping whet (wet?) your interest.

See our latest video: The Endless Lure of the Sea

A lovely response to We Ran Away to Sea

We’ve recently had some lovely responses to We Ran Away to Sea. Geoff Boerne, the captain of Lo Entropy, a boat Kent and Pam encountered in Mexico in the 1990s, last week finally received the copy of the book we’d sent him at the end of February. Apparently it takes a long time to get a book to Denmark! He tells us he started reading on Friday evening and finished the book on Saturday afternoon, sad to have it come to an end. He also saw the book as not just a sailing book, but a love story, which I, too, think it is.  He had much more to say, and, of course, identified with all the sailing bits.  Thank you, Geoff!

There is more about Geoff and his current endeavors in today’s blog post. Check out what he and Peter Roberts are doing to help save our planet, by clicking the following link on my Caminobleu blog:

Can We Save Our Planet?

June-July Events – Mark Your Calendars!

Kent will be giving a book talk: Saturday, June 29 from 1-2 p.m at the Juan Tabo branch of the Albuquerque Public Library.

He will also be selling and signing books with a few other authors on Saturday, July 6 at the lovely Garcia Street Books, Santa Fe, from 10-12 am. We hope to see some of our Santa Fe friends!

Three copies of the book are now available at the Albuquerque Public Library, and there is a waiting list! The call number is 813.54 KEDL. Please request more copies!

We Still Need More Reviews

Check out the new reviews on Amazon and on our webpage:  Follow Kent’s author page by clicking on follow on Amazon.  We need more reviews!  Good Reads is another place to put reviews. Can you help us get up to 50? We’re almost there! See the help on posting reviews a bit farther down the page.

There was a sudden spike in book sales in early June for three days in a row. That was a welcome mystery, and we hope it keeps up.

I also added some new content to the book page on Amazon. But, oops! Only part of the content appears on the paperback page. It’s all there on the Kindle page, so look there for now, and I’ll try to fix it tomorrow.

Send us a picture of you reading the book

Please send us your picture of you or someone reading the book or seeing the book in interesting places.

Esther Jantzen, author of Walk: Jamie Bacon’s Secret MIssion on the Camino de Santiago, and founder of Elder Activist Readers, enjoying We Ran Away to Sea.

Return from Indonesia

We took a break from book stuff for three weeks in May and enjoyed a fascinating impromptu trip to Indonesia. We were so captivated by our experiences that we totally forgot to take pictures with the book in the many intriguing and scenic places we visited. Alas! But here we are, without the book!

Linnea and Kent riding high in the sky in Bali, Indonesia

Calling all Writers! Join me on a Shakespearean Excursion: “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by our sun of York.” opening lines of Richard III

Background

Despite my efforts to be creative in promoting the book, I have been discontented these past months with the modest sales of We Ran Away to Sea.  I recently contracted someone in Poland to analyze my efforts with Amazon ads, upon which I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time and money with mediocre results.  I enjoy the creative aspects of promotion, but not the nitty-gritty details or keeping track.

This morning, a serendipitous detour led to some unexpected pleasures as I reflected upon “Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by our sun of York,” the brilliant opening lines of Shakespeare’s Richard III. The link below provides an excellent analysis of the entire passage and concludes with a fabulous video of Laurence Olivier delivering the soliloquy.

https://nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/soliloquies/now-is-the-winter-of-our-discontent

My Polish Mentor

My Polish mentor suggested that the blurb which I revised several times with the dubious “help” of ChatGPT was more a synopsis than an invitation to read the book. So, I tackled revising the blurb, and I invite your suggestions and comments. I uploaded the revised blurb for both the ebook and the paperback onto Amazon last night, but I’m not satisfied with either. This morning, I wrote the following shortened version with no use of AI.

So, channeling Shakespeare again, Ladies and Gentlemen, please “lend me your ears” (Julius Caesar) and your advice.

(1) Revision March 22 (morning)

Frustrated and unhappy with their comfortable lives in mid-America, Kent and Pam sell the family home and all their possessions and run away to live on a sailboat. With no experience of the sea or sailing, they fly to England with their children in search of an affordable boat. Their first sail is across the Atlantic. In the days before GPS, they rely on celestial navigation to get them to the Caribbean. Are they crazy, brave, foolish, or all three? Would you or wouldn’t you do what they did? Told in two voices from different perspectives, Pam and Kent’s accounts of their lives at sea and at home will give you much to think about.

Run away with Pam and Kent and explore the unknown with them and within yourself.

 Or should the opening (continuing the Shakespeare allusion) be: “Discontented with their comfortable lives…”?

(2) Current Kindle version (as of March 22)

Would you voluntarily give up your secure, comfortable life for the unknown?

When Pam and Kent make the audacious decision to sell their house and everything in it and embrace life at sea, they envision a harmonious existence on their sailboat, filled with adventure and togetherness. However, their dreams shatter early on when Pam and the children abandon Kent and their boat in Europe, leaving him disheartened and adrift. Undeterred, he embarks on a solitary journey through the equinoctial gales of the Bay of Biscay, accompanied by a hired crew. Weeks later, Pam has a change of heart and joins him with their ten-year-old son in the Canary Islands for the Atlantic crossing. Using celestial navigation in the days before GPS, they arrive in Antigua as planned. But little do they know that the challenges of their chosen new life are just beginning.

Pam’s vivid letters and Kent’s heartfelt stories document the grand experiment of their years at sea, their risky overland travels, and the struggles that threaten to pull them apart but bring them closer together. The book contains maps, photos, a timeline, and a glossary.

(3) Current Amazon paperback version (as of March 22)

Would you voluntarily relinquish your comfortable life and worldly goods and set out for the unknown?

When Pam and Kent decide to sell their house and embrace a life at sea, they envision a harmonious existence on their sailboat, filled with adventure and togetherness. However, their dreams shatter when Pam and the children abandon Kent and their boat in Europe, leaving him disheartened and adrift. Undeterred, he embarks on a solitary journey through the equinoctial gales of the Bay of Biscay, accompanied by a hired crew. Weeks later, Pam has a change of heart and she and ten-year-old Andy join him in the Canary Islands for the Atlantic crossing. Using celestial navigation in those days before GPS, they reach the Caribbean. Yet, their challenges are just beginning.

Although Kent yearns to sail through the Panama Canal and explore the vast Pacific, Pam harbors deep-seated fears, and fourteen-year-old Jake, who has reluctantly joined them in the Virgin Islands, craves the familiarity of friends back home. Despite memorable family adventures, Kent reluctantly relinquishes his cherished dream.

Nearly a decade later, Pam and Kent sell their home and possessions again, this time venturing through the Great Lakes into the North Atlantic, through the Bahamas to the Caribbean. For over six years, they travel to offbeat destinations and undertake daring overland journeys through Central America, Venezuela, and Colombia—a country then known for its perilous reputation. Kent remains steadfast in his desire to traverse the Panama Canal and sail the Pacific, but equipment failures, storms, illness, financial worries, and family complications often interrupt their idyllic moments.

Will Pam succumb to her fears, or will Kent embark on his grand voyage alone? Share their journey and the difficult, sometimes heart-wrenching decisions involved in living at sea.

So that’s it! Which of these versions or variations of them would entice you to read the book? What would Shakespeare write? Comments?

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Home again and an upcoming event

Welcome to 2024! We are home from our six weeks in Scandinavia, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia, finishing with two days each in Berlin and Amsterdam. We met wonderful people (many helped us when we were lost, which happened a lot!), spent Christmas with families in Sweden, and enjoyed time on boats, trains, and buses. We loved the beautiful snow and endured some rain, dark days, icy walking, and record-breaking low temperatures.

Snowy night outside of the opera house in Riga, Latvia

Our “seat of the pants” travel had some surprises. The weather was record-breaking cold by the time we reached Tallinn, Estonia, which was beautiful in the snow with the Christmas market still going in full swing when we arrived on New Year’s Day. But, we soon realized we weren’t going to have time to see all the Baltic countries and make our way through Poland and Germany to Amsterdam unless we traveled nonstop, so we found a patient travel agent in Tallinn, who booked airline tickets from Riga, Latvia to Berlin for us.

We took a bus to Riga where we stayed in a hotel near the Latvia National Opera house. We had heard that the Latvia Opera was outstanding, and we were fortunate to get tickets to a stunning performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. We left snowy Riga before the first light in the continuing all-night snowfall. In Berlin, we rode buses and trams and visited two outstanding museums that were free on the first Sunday of the month.

Inside the Latvia National Opera House

Stairs to nowhere, at the Riga airport

Enchanting pastoral scene by Jacob Philipp Hackert (1737-1807) in the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Berlin Hauptbahnhof (central train staion)

First view of Amsterdam, looking back toward the train station

We took the train to Amsterdam, where we stayed in a lovely, quirky old canal house hotel with stairs that were almost like climbing a ladder.  We spent an entire day in the Rijksmuseum, where I loved watching the docents working with school children. One energetic young man had the children so excited by the details he pointed out in Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” that they stood up, crowding around him to get a better look. Even though I didn’t understand Dutch, I, too, discovered details I’d never noticed before.

Home at last, we’re plunged into taking care of things ignored for six weeks, connecting with friends and family, and working on Kent’s Oasis talk, which is going to be brilliant!

In some ways, he succeeded; in others, not. Kedl reveals what he learned about himself and the world during seven years of adventure – crossing the Atlantic, cruising the Caribbean, sailing through the Great Lakes; and traveling overland through parts of Central and South America. Listen and learn about the grand experiment.Kent Kedl is the author of We Ran Away to Sea: A Memoir and Letters. He has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Oregon and taught at South Dakota State University for 22 years. After returning to land in 2000, he taught philosophy for two more years in South Dakota. He moved to Albuquerque in 2011

For more information and to register click on the Oasis link below. Class number is 224, Cost is $12 plus a minimal registration fee to join Oasis


Oasis

Book Reviews

See new reviews of We Ran Away to Sea posted in the book review section.

Also, good news! The book is now available at the Albuquerque Public Library and there is a waiting list for the two paperback copies we donated: The call number is 813.54 KEDL. Please request they order more copies!

If you know any place that would like to schedule a book talk, please let us know.

Christmas Greetings from Sweden 2023

Logo

This is not our usual Christmas letter since we have been traveling in Scandinavia since December 1, with 12 days on the Hurtigruten Coastal Express from Bergen to Kirkenes, Norway, and back, then to Oslo and Sweden where we’ve been warmly welcomed by my cousin Ingrid and her husband Hans Ove in Norrköping and Olov and Lena in Karlstad where we are spending Christmas.

Despite some disappointing rain, we’ve had beautiful snow, first on the day after our arrival in Bergen and again these past two days in Karlstad.
I’m reminded of my Upper Michigan childhood, with snow on the ground for five to six months. Will snow will become a rare experience with global warming?

For much of 2023 we worked on publishing and then promoting Kent and Pam’s book, We Ran Away to Sea. We’re still working on the promotion, but have been gratified that so many of you have us you have enjoyed the book. For those of you in Albuquerque, Kent will be giving an illustrated talk about his sailing years at Oasis at 10:30 am on January 19, 2024.

Other News: We walked parts of the Camino Mozárabe from Alméria to Mérida in Spain during March and April. The terrain was rugged, and at 79 and 82, we are no longer walking the pace we managed ten years ago.
From Karlstad we’ll go to Stockholm, then Helsinki and Tallinn, Estonia; and after that a week “somewhere” before we fly home from Amsterdam on January 10.

Polar Night: In the Arctic, we discovered that even during the polar night, when the sun doesn’t rise above the horizon for months, the night is never totally dark, but lighted by reflections from the atmosphere, the white snow, and the moon, stars, and planets.  Dawn and dusk follow each other in the space of two or three hours. May we each experience lightness and hope this coming year, even amid the apparent darkness of our polar nights.


Kent and Linnea Christmas in Sweden
Copyright (C) 2023 Jacana Press. All rights reserved.


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Greetings from the Arctic: Entering the Polar Night (edited so you don’t have to click on the link)

Here’s what we’ve been doing on board the Hurtigruten Polarlys.

https://us14.campaign-archive.com/?u=7330108cf69d34631ac3811b1&id=f1ab7598ca

If the link above doesn’t work try this one:

https://us14.campaign-archive.com/?u=7330108cf69d34631ac3811b1&id=f1ab7598ca


http://eepurl.com/iFJzzEEmail sent from Jacana Press from the Arctic December 8, 2023

The Polar Night
W

We crossed the Arctic Circle at 8:05 am, entering the Polar Night.  Kent and Pam never got here in Jacana or Coot, but we took the opportunity to celebrate We Ran Away to Sea.  The polar mark was lit up as we passed.
We told one of our dining partners about the book, and she whipped out her phone and ordered a copy on the spot!   We hope some of you will do the same!

Yesterday’s polar night was more like sunrise and sunset compressed into a few hours, with no actual day in between.  As a photographer it was like having the blue hour for two or three hours, not just 20 minutes.
In a few hours we will tie up in Tromsø, the gateway to the polar regions. We’ll be in this darkness and semi-dark for several more days.  I’m glad we’re not sailing in Coot!  My fingers would be too cold to write!










Svolvaer.  It’s definitely polar night.


Polarnight daytime, l’heure bleue.

Another short video:  Christmas on a sailboat is different. In 1994, Pam and Kent celebrated at Exuma National Park in the Bahamas. Read about it on page 126 (Chapter 12 Going Foreign) in We Ran Away to Sea. Sail with Pam and Kent on  YouTube, Instagram and TikTok!

We need more reviews!  Please share your thoughts about the book if you liked it (and even if you didn’t). Every review helps. It doesn’t have to more than a heading and a few words.

We Ran Away to Sea is now available at The Treasure House, Organic Books, Books on the Bosque, Bookworks, and Page One in Albuquerque. NM; The Travel Bug and Collected Works in Santa Fe, NM; Calamity Books and Sheridan Stationery and Books in Sheridan, WY; Two Dog Market in Leadville, Colorado; and at Books by the Bay in Sausalito, CA, as well as on Amazon in both paperback and ebook.Upcoming Event: Kent will be presenting at Oasis in Albuquerque on January 19, 10:30-12, 2024. If you’d like him to give a presentation somewhere near you, please let us know. Have book, will travel!

The Wooden Boat in the Woods

Read about the Wooden Boat in the Woods and Other News

Transcript of the sign is below: Fritz and Kent. Sailors meet at the Boat in the Woods.

When our neighbors Charlie and Heather read Kent’s book, they came over excited to talk about it and brought with them another book written by an author with an Albuquerque connection —  Fritz Damler’s Ten Years Behind the Mast.  Furthermore, the very boat that the author had sailed and lived on for ten years, was now on permanent display at the Tinkertown Museum in the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque —  a  most unlikely location for a sailboat.

“Let’s go see it, “ I said.  “Is the author there? Can we meet him?”  I tracked down Mr. Damler, now dividing his time between rural Wisconsin, where he builds guitars and writes novels, and a home in the Bahamas, but he said he’d be visiting Albuquerque during the October Balloon Fiesta.

That is how Kent and I spent an enjoyable afternoon by the boat with Fritz. On his next visit in the spring, we hope to arrange a joint book talk and signing.

Tinkertown, a one-of-a-kind museum that has its own amazing story, will soon be closing for the winter. Here is a video of Fritz and his wife Mari Anderson, discussing a book they wrote together, Plunge: Midlife with Snorkel, which Kent is currently enjoying.  Like We Ran Away to Sea, it is written in two voices. 

Here is a transcription of the hand-painted sign next to the boat (shown in the picture above):

In 1981 Fritz Damler heard the call of “universal freedom. ”He quit his job & traded his house for the boat you see here…The winds became his “utilities.” The seas became his “supermarket.” Sailing at approximately 4 miles per hour, he lived on this boat for ten years.  Others joined him at times & sometimes he sailed alone.

He came to know the variety of people on the earth & to truly know himself. “Theodora R” built in England in 1936 has now become an exhibit here at the Tinkertown Museum. This display is dedicated to Mr. Damler’s quest & to yours.

 “Life is short. Follow your heart.”

Danger in the Equinox

See the latest short 90 second video on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok!

Reading, Book Signing, Exhibit of Pam’s Art and Maybe a Slide Show

Please share your thoughts about the book if you liked it (and even if you didn’t). Every review helps. It doesn’t have to more than a heading and a few words. Post on Amazon

The Story Behind the Book Cover

Pam’s Rough Draft of a Collage was the basis for the cover design

We spent months working with cover designer Sara deHaan, who patiently made cover after cover for us. Somehow, none of them seemed quite right. Even when we decided on the final cover, we had our doubts. In our Christmas letter we asked for votes on two cover choices, and only two people chose our final cover as their favorite.

Kent and I wavered in our choice, but Sara urged us to go with the blue cover we finally decided on. Pam’s collage expresses what is perhaps the main theme of the book: the relationship between Pam, Kent, the boat, and their boys, and Pam’s struggle to reconcile those loves, and her ever-present longing for home, as represented by the cats snuggled together on the lower right, and her love of art (in the upper left and right corners), for which there was no room on their small sailboat. Pam was practicing moving heads in Photoshop, so a photograph of her head is attached to the the figure slumped in the chair to the right of the boat, while Kent is given the be-wigged head of the dogmatic Puritan, Cotton Mather, both of whom, fairly or not, were characterized as stubborn and fanatically dedicated to what they believed to be right. Sons Jake and Andy sit on a log, their backs to us, and the curving lines connect all the elements of the picture with each other and with the boat, Coot that is the central and dominant image.

Pam and two artworks from the collage that represent her love of art, home, and her boys.

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New Video on YouTube and New Book Presentation and Signing Coming Up

We finally launched a new video: A Storm at Sea , and we are excited to announce a new book talk and signing at the wonderful new Groove Artspace at 309 Gold SW in downtown Albuquerque on Wednesday, October 4 at 6 pm. More information to follow. Save the date!

Meanwhile we had a wonderful visit with the family and grandchildren in San Francisco over the weekend. Here is just one photo with Zia and Grampy reading We Ran Away to Sea on the shore in Sausalito: More to follow!

Successful Event at Treasure House Books in Old Town, Albuquerque

We had a lovely afternoon yesterday at Treasure House Books in Old Town, Albuquerque. If you are looking for books on the Southwest or books by New Mexico authors this is the place to go!

We enjoyed seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Who would have guessed how many old sailors end up in New Mexico? Despite worries that we’d be disrupted by a gun rally on the Old Town Plaza, all was peaceful and our event was well-attended.

Our next scheduled reading and signing will take place at the new Groove Artspace at 300 Gold Southwest in downtown Albuquerque at 6 pm on Wednesday, October 4. We hope to see some of you there in this beautiful gallery surrounded by lovely art.

Kent waiting for customers at the Treasure House
Kent waiting for customers at Treasure House

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Book Signings, Readings, and Reviews

Kent reading We Ran Away to Sea

Kent reading in downtown Albuquerque

Join us at Treasure House Books and Gifts in Old Town this Sunday, September 10, from 1:30-3:30 p.m. for a book talk, reading, and conversation. Come and go as you please since the space is small. Books will be available for sale.

We hope to have future events for those who cannot make this one.

In the News!

We were happy to see David Steinberg’s “Book of the Week” article based on his thoughtful reading of We Ran Away to Sea and several phone conversations over the past couple of weeks. We were pleasantly surprised to be chosen as the Book of the Week, given the presence of several much-published and well-known authors at events this week. The link to the Albuquerque Journal article is below.

Setting Sail: Memoir offers an intimate look at one couple’s life on the seas

Report on the Travel Bug Presentation on August 26

Unfortunately, we forgot to ask someone to take pictures of the talk and reading at the Travel Bug in Santa Fe last week that was attended by twenty enthusiastic people. The presentation shared by Kent and Linnea was accompanied by a slide show with a few special effects. We won’t be able to show the slides this week, but we hope to find another venue where we can repeat this performance.

Thanks for Your Support

We appreciate all of your support for this project that, like the Covid pandemic that accompanied it, often seemed to have no end. Please think about writing a few words on Amazon about your response to the book. Ask about the book at your local bookstores, and tell your friends about the book.

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