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Brilliant Details of the South Pacific so few of us know ... The author is one intrepid woman, and very, very strong, both physically and mentally. Her incredible memory for details of her seven years sailing through the South Pacific 40 years ago makes these experiences seem like they're happening right now. The book is really a ""personal journey"" memoir, in which she reveals disquieting aspects of her family and upbringing, and how she comes to grips with being a rebellious ""outsider"" who wants to live a minimalist lifestyle, freed of the trappings of capitalist society. The book gives a real sense of the adventure of sailing amidst remote islands that most of us have never heard of nor know anything about the people who live there. Two chapters really stay with me: the first is her absolutely spot-on depiction of the misogyny and racism of Northern Queensland 40 years ago--she really captures the harshness of that place then, remnants of which remain a part of Australian society to this day. The second is her stunningly beautiful description of giving birth to the first white baby on a tiny island in Papua New Guinea. That chapter could stand alone for any anthropologist or poet. Friends who are sailors to whom I've recommended the book say it includes some of the finest writing about sailing they have read...this is a magnificent effort. Well done! Let's make it into a movie! Erika Esau, author of Images of the Pacific Rim: Australia and California, 1850 - 1935; and Three German Women: Personal Histories from the Twentieth Century A Sweeping Tale"" doesn't do justice as a description of this book. You know how it feels when you are reading a really good book and suddenly realize you're only 30 pages from the end? ""But I don't want it to end"" you think. That's this book. The story is a ""warts and all"" memoir told with grace, humor, irony and just a tiny bit of sarcasm. Her gift for describing the geography and nautical aspect of her travels will pull you in to the point where you can actually feel the salt spray coming over the bow of your Lazy Boy Recliner. Beyond that her brutal honesty and candid confessions of doubt, hurt and amusement make this book so much more than a travelogue. I am a compulsive reader. I normally read to ""learn"" stuff (non-fiction & history) and an equal amount of literature that makes me ""feel"" stuff. This book covered both bases. A 2-fer if you will. I recommend it highly. - Geoffrey Williams

Author Information

Patricia Morgan was born in 1949. After a brief flirtation with university, she discovered the sailor's life, the experiences of which are captured in this memoir. Those seven memorable years in the South Pacific ended with a reluctant relocation to the Pacific Northwest in 1978, where she has spent the ensuing 40-plus years transcribing court trials, a line of work that afforded her freedom from the confines of an eight-to-five job or needing to live in one place, thus allowing her to be home to raise her four children. Today she meditates, writes, reads, and transcribes court trials part time. Continuing to embrace the minimalist lifestyle sought while sailing, she remains aweigh of life, having no permanent address for long. Most recently, after four years of calling a beloved 27-foot box van home, the winds shifted, and as of this printing, she's temporarily eschewed her nomadic tendencies to settle in a community dwelling tucked into a rural pocket of the Scenic Columbia Gorge in Washington.

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