Would you give up your comfortable life and worldly goods to sail into the unknown?
Pam and Kent sell everything, give up their jobs, take their two children, and embark on what they hope will be a new life of adventure and discovery. What could possibly go wrong? They've read books. With no experience of the sea or sailing, these naive mid-westerners cross the Atlantic Ocean in a small sailboat using only celestial navigation in the days before GPS. Miraculously, they arrive safely in the Caribbean, but their troubles are far from over.
Kent's goal is to traverse the Panama Canal and explore the vast Pacific, but Pam harbors deep-seated fears, and fourteen-year-old Jake craves the familiarity of friends and home. Despite memorable family adventures, the family gives up after a year. But this is not the end of the dream.
Once the children are grown, Pam and Kent again sell their home and possessions, this time venturing through the Great Lakes and the Bahamas to the Caribbean. For over six years, they travel to offbeat destinations, making daring overland journeys through Central America, Venezuela, and Colombia—a country then known as one of the world's most dangerous. Confronted with equipment failures, storms, illness, financial worries, and family complications, Kent still wants to cross Panama and sail the Pacific. Pam has doubts. Can he win her over?
Their gripping story, told in two voices (his and hers), will hold your attention to the very end.
