Coming about

COMING ABOUT, The Bliss and Bane of Coastal Sailing, tells stories of a couple's adventures sailing in coastal waters, primarily in the Pacific Northwest, over the course of a quarter century. Among their more blissful experiences are sailing to Alaska to explore Glacier Bay, observing differing Native American arts and cultures, and enjoying such exotic sites in British Columbia as Princess Louisa Inlet and The Island that Trembles. On the baneful side, they encounter grounding on rocks, engine failures, incessant rainfall, blinding fog, and being charged by a whale! Intermittently the couple delights in chartering in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Tonga and New Zealand with other couples. The book describes amateur coastal sailing over long distances, a subject seldom emphasized in sailing literature. It is a sometimes amusing depiction of the challenges involved in live-aboard sailing in coastal waters, set against a required learning curve for amateurs. Lawrence W. Norton, MD, is Emeritus Professor of Surgery in the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver. As a boy he sailed a kayak on an Illinois river. After completing his surgical specialty boards, he took his family to Assam in Northeast India where he worked in a mission hospital for five years. Returning to Denver he began a career in academic surgery and in his free time sailed a 16-foot sloop on Colorado lakes. At age 50, he and his wife, Ann, sailed on the ocean for the first time. Thereafter they cruised increasingly lengthy portions of the Northwest Coast from Seattle to Alaska and chartered sailboats in international waters. Dr. Norton is the author of MASKED AND GOWNED, The Making of a Surgeon; DOCTOR SAHIB, Stories of an American Surgeon in India; and OPERATIVE NOTES, Stories of a Teaching Surgeon.