To sail a boat is a magical, and sometimes mystical, experience. The sailor is free from the cares of life on land, entirely absorbed in the enterprise of moving a craft across the water. For the uninitiated, though, willingly putting oneself at the mercy of nature's unpredictable forces, winds, waves, and weather can seem quite daunting. Here, Matt Vance takes readers inside the mind of a sailor, from the first scary moment of handling a boat solo to the exhilaration of sailing across oceans and discovering new worlds. His stories and those of his fellow madmen will captivate sailors young and old and have landlubbers yearning for the blue horizon.""