Lin and Larry Pardey Visit Camden

Lin and Larry Pardey Visit Camden Public Library July 26

Lin and Larry Pardey are authors and sailors with more than 11 books and 200,000 miles at sea to their credit. The Pardeys will be visiting Camden to present an illustrated talk, “The Adventures that Shaped Our Lives,” at the Camden Public Library on Thursday, July 26, at 6:30 pm.

The evening will include readings from their latest book, Bull Canyon: A Boatbuilder, a Writer, and other Wildlife. Part memoir, part adventure tale, part love story, Bull Canyon captures the spirit of two dreamers and schemers who took life by the horns and lived to tell the glorious tale. In the tradition of A Year in Provence, Bull Canyon is a mesmerizing story destined to join the canon of great tales of homesteading.

Lin and Larry Pardey are on record for sailing the smallest boat to have circumnavigated contrary to the prevailing winds around all the great southern capes. They are the only couple to have circumnavigated both east-about and west-about on boats they built themselves, using traditional means of navigation and having no engine nor sponsorship.

Fresh off an eleven-year-long sailing adventure, Lin and Larry were looking for a good spot to build a boat, test Lin’s skills as a writer, and taste the apparent security that life ashore could offer. Bull Canyon, an isolated area nestled in a rocky outcropping of winding dirt roads, 60 miles from the sea and 50 miles from Los Angeles, seemed an unlikely spot for boatbuilding, but when Lin and Larry set eyes on the abandoned stone cottage at the top of a craggy, dusty lane—a place that begged to be lived in—they knew they’d come home.

Bull Canyon: A Boatbuilder, a Writer and other Wildlife chronicles their four years spent far from the sea, building the boat of their dreams in remote Bull Canyon. The book paints a vivid portrait of a life that involved packrats in the ceiling, flooding rains that would make Noah himself cower, fires, an occasional cougar, traveling dangerous and often impassable roads just to get to the nearest grocery store, no piped-in water, no electricity, no phones, and not even a proper address to receive mail.

Bull Canyon also reveals a journey that would prove daunting, gritty, and at times, dangerous—a tougher bargain than Lin and Larry had signed up for. Navigating the uncertain terrain of Bull Canyon would be far more challenging than navigating the seas that had been their home, and working side-by-side, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week would test their marriage. Bull Canyon was a place where dreams could come true, where Lin and Larry tapped into the affirming core of their marriage, accomplished back-breaking physical feats and learned to love the magical yet challenging environment.

The Pardeys have also created several instructional videos on offshore voyaging. They make New Zealand their home base, but spend part of each year cruising on board their engine-free 29-foot sailboat Taleisin. Visit Lin Pardey online at:  www.linpardey.com.

Lin and her husband have received numerous awards for their sailing exploits and contributions to the sport of sailing. Bull Canyon is the fifth in the series of narratives describing their sailing and the adventures they have encountered on land and sea. The series, starting with Cruising In Seraffyn, is credited with launching 50,000 cruising dreams. Bull Canyon, though it is a continuation of that story, takes place completely on land. There will be copies of their books available for purchase at the talk on July 26.