Synopsis
This tale of a circumnavigation is also the story of one woman's journey into her dream. Beth Leonard followed the success path of the materialistic '80s, a path that took her away from the core of herself, family and friends, and the sense of fulfillment that only comes from within.
The story begins when, despite her lack of sailing expertise, her partner Evans Starzinger suggests they circumnavigate the world in a small sailing boat. She listens to her heart and chooses to follow the sea and chase her dream of becoming a writer.
In the three-year circumnavigation, there are intervals of up to 29 days when she and Evans are alone at sea. Ms. Leonard reads the early ocean explorers' logs and journals. She feels their presence as she faces the same dangers and celebrates the same landfalls. At each landfall, she immerses herself in cultures where life is lived to different rhythms. She learns from the hospitality, humility, and hope of the people she meets in a South Pacific pearling lagoon, a South African laundromat, and a café in the Azores. From these new perspectives, she discovers how to live a life both fulfilling and satisfying.
Armchair sailors and adventurers alike will be drawn into her voyage of discovery and change. Anyone with an unquenchable dream will find in these pages the encouragement to chase that dream, right over the horizon...and find themselves at journey's end.
SAIL Magazine
In Following Seas, Beth Leonard takes her readers on several voyage at once-personal, social, and historical. As she says, "The literal voyages across oceans....had become a figurative voyage into the depths of my heart and soul...." As she sails, she absorbs the wisdom and courage of the early voyagers- Christopher Columbus, Captain James Cook, Charles Darwin, Joshua Slocum and in port. She learns from the perspectives of the many people she meets. We are carried along with Beth and her partner Evans through calms, storms and days of unbounded joy until we realize, with them, how much the sea can test us and change our lives. -Patience Wales, Editor