Suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of time spent in submarines during the so-called Cold War, George Maynard leaves a Navy psycho ward in 1964 with an honorable discharge and the clinical psychologist's warning that the treatment he has received is patently inadequate for cases like his. Broke, with a wife and three children to support, he sets out to find some way to put his life back together. He learns woodcarving to make a living, then builds an old fashioned wooden sailboat, puts his family aboard, and circumnavigates the world under sail, without the assistance of an auxiliary engine. Told by the mariner himself, Scudding is a tale in turn lyrical and profane, idyllic and frightening, joyous, funny, and edge-of-your-seat thrilling.