Fully aware that his mythical home-place might have vanished forever into memory (or at least into sad disrepair), Gary Geddes set out to discover his roots in a 31-foot British sailing sloop, christened the Groais. Those tangled roots wound their way up British Columbia's famed Inside Passage, an ancient sea route of nearly one thousand miles, an often turbulent waterscape where Geddes discovers a vibrant history, livelihoods come and gone, dramatic scenery, and ghosts of the past.

"We can no longer pretend we don't know about residential schools, murdered and missing Aboriginal women and 'Indian hospitals.' The only outstanding question is how we respond."—Tom Sandborn, Vancouver SunA shocking exposé of the dark history and legacy of segregated Indigenous health care in Canada.After the publication of his critically acclaimed 2011 book Drink the Bitter Root: A Writer's Search for Justice and Hea...

For thirty years, Gary Geddes has lived with his shadow self, an obscure 5th-century Buddhist monk named Huishen, whose legend shanghaied his vivid imagination. Huishen, originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, reportedly sailed from China to Vancouver Island, continuing southward to Mexico. In a journey to recreate the travels of Huishen, Geddes finds himself not only struggling to cross the ancient barriers of the Himalayas, the Taklamakan Desert, the Pacific Ocean and the jungles of Central ...

Drink the Bitter Root is an international story about the ethical and environmental footprint world nations are leaving in Africa in their determined efforts to destabilize and loot the continent. In the spirit of Robert Kaplan and Samantha Power, Gary Geddes sets out in search of justice, healing and reconciliation. He begins his journey at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, then travels to Rwanda, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Somaliland, cro...

The Qingming Shanghe Tu scroll, sometimes called “Spring Festival by the River,” was thought to have been painted by Zhang Zeduan before 1127, when the Northern Song capital of Bian-Iiang was overrun by the invading Jin. Inspired by the figures in

The author shares his dream of sailing around the world, first formulated when he was six years old. The outfitting of his boat for the task and the trip itself taking 7 years, starting and ending in Hawaii. Leading him as far north as Alaska, south to New Zealand and into the relatively uncharted waters of the Black Sea, up the Dnieper River in the Ukraine and to Saudi Arabia. Along the way he encounters high winds to 70 knots and 50 foot waves, equipment breakdowns that have to be diagno...

Somewhere between the Galapagos Islands en route to the Marqesas Group in the darkest of nights, at approximately six degrees south of the equator a sailboat is whispering along under full sail. The fresh south east trades are pushing her sleek hull through the coal black water at around eight knots. The man standing at the wheel, wearing ragged shorts only in the warm tropical breeze gently fanning him over the port quarter, helms his craft by starlight alone. All lights have been doused ...

Have you ever dreamt of cashing in your chips and escaping to a tropical paradise? Faced with an imminent divorce, this non-fiction novel chronicles how Jimmy Lassiter does just that, taking the reader through liquidating the marital assets, purchasing a yacht, and sailing 'Down to the Tropical Sun'. Along the way he will experience two hurricanes, fall in love again, and embark on a new career delivering yachts.

At 35-years old, Kelly and Paul Watts sold their home and quit their jobs to sail around the world, without any sailing experience. Two days after purchasing their forty-two-foot sloop, they got caught in a forty-knot gale off the coast of Cape Fear, NC.  Their sails ripped; the engine overheated; the GPS broke; they suffered hypothermia and severe seasickness.  And yet they persevered on their journey, discovering the playful sea lions of the Galapagos, the seductive dance of t...

298 photos! Missives from MARAVIDA: A Family’s Caribbean Sailing Adventure documents the extraordinary journey I took with my husband and our two children. Our adventure is chronicled in the e-mail messages I sent to family and friends after we met up with MARAVIDA in Trinidad. It is supplemented with pictures, general information about the locations we visited, and web links. I’ve done my best to preserve the small details of our life, which might prove useful for those who would like to ...

When Ben Tucker and his kid brother Matt decided to sail south in search of icebergs on Ben's small home-built kiwi sloop, their father Jon was allowed to come along as their cabin-boy, on a promise of good behaviour.The unfolding adventure took them through thick pack ice to become trapped at the windiest place on the planet, a remote location in East Antarctica.'Snow Petrel' is proof of what ordinary people can achieve on a minimal budget. Recently released in New Zealand...

This is a book of days and moments spent sailing on the east coast of Newfoundland and over the Atlantic to the Azores. Newfoundland is a beautiful cruising ground, one of the best in the world for a short period of the year in July and August, perhaps from late June. Optimistically and romantically, the Bay of Exploits has been called the Caribbean of the north. Many cruising days in summer start from calm in the morning, develop into a strong wind in the afternoon, sometimes as much as 2...