A born seeker and wanderer, Pat Henry married at 15 and gave birth at 16. After delivering a second daughter, she finished high school near Bloomington, Indiana, and worked at being a wife, mother, and the principal means of support while her husband went to college. But a conventional life was never in her cards. After divorcing, she earned an architecture degree from the University of Illinois while a single mother; and later toured the country on her motorcycle, ending up in California with $12. There she waitressed, sold real estate, drafted blueprints, taught at San Francisco mudflats, and discovered sailing on a friend's 50-foot trimaran, aboard which she sailed first to Mexico and later on a three-year voyage to Southeast Asia. Back in California, she started a business importing a flame-retardant fabric for clothing worn by firefighters. Overcommitted financially, but with success in reach, her business was ruined by the withdrawal of a key manufacturer. Reeling financially and emotionally, she began the voyage recounted in this book almost accidentally, discovering along the way first her talent as a painter, and more recently her ability to write.
