Kayaking the Vermilion Sea: Eight Hundred Miles Down the Baja

by Jonathan Waterman

Overview

In Kayaking the Vermilion Sea, Jonathan and Deborah Waterman share the two months they spent paddling through the violent tides and storms that define the mythically charged Sea of Cortes.

This paradisiacal journey depicts the past and present of a legendary body of water — and the struggle of a man and a woman to find each other.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780684803388
Publisher:	Touchstone
Publication date:	12/10/1996
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Waterman is the author of nine books, has made four television films, and works as a freelance author and filmmaker. In 2004, his writing about the Arctic won the prestigious National Endowment of the Arts Literary Fellowship.

Editorial Reviews

Disenchanted with life in general, Waterman and his wife of one year, Deborah, sought a wilderness adventure to renew their spirits. They spent two months paddling kayaks down the coastline of Baja California on the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California), an area rich in history. Waterman (In the Shadow of Denali) recounts their journey in vivid detail. It was a challenging voyage-choppy seas, turbulent tides, storms and biting insects. They met expatriate Americans, windsurfers, a group of kayakers, yachtsmen. They paddled with dolphins and observed a sea-lion nursery. Waterman notes that Isla Espirita Santo is being marketed as a haven for kayakers; other places are looking for the tourist trade. Guess what he finds at the end of the journey? How much work and communication are necessary in marriage. Photos not seen by PW. (June)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Following a rigorous climb of Mt. Denali (In the Shadow of Denali, LJ 3/1/94), Waterman and his new wife, Deborah, decided sunshine was in order and drove south. Their goal: to kayak one of the lowest points on Earth, the arid coastline of the legendary Sea of Cortes off Baja California, Mexico. They chronicle their two-month voyage here in brief chapters detailing their adventures. Quotations from Spanish explorers and missionaries tell the often depressing story of the Baja natives. Waterman depicts the environmental debacle of a sea that is overfished while laws to protect it ignored. The couple struggles to survive the raging waters and their rocky relationship, battling storms and sea lions one moment, their stressed emotions the next. This book is a pleasant addition to the sparse collection of literature on this subject. Recommended for travel and Southwest collections.-Kathy Ellerton, Missouri Research & Education Network, Columbia

Library Journal