Sailing promise: Around the world on a catamaran [Paperback]

Main and her husband, Alec, put their jobs on hold for three years, bought a 33' catamaran and followed his dream of sailing around the world. Some 32,000 miles later, they had survived terrible storms at sea, eaten strange and exotic foods, encountered menacing sailors (pirates?), and become part of an amorphous community of waterborne adventurers. But the oceangoing life often frightens Main and tests her marriage. In fact, the first half of the book focuses primarily on her unhappiness with her own self-doubts, her husband for not being more sympathetic, and her general loneliness. By the second half of the book (and journey), she has come to terms with herself and her husband, and the places they visit and people they meet take center stage. The reader finally begins to feel the joy of exploring the world. Part travel chronicle, part self-exploration, and not entirely satisfactory on either account, this book is only for the most complete of public library adventure collections.ALinda M. Kaufmann, Freel Lib., Massachusetts Coll. of Liberal Arts, North Adams
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Will You Marry Me... And Sail Around the World? Alayne Main was 28 years old with an exciting medical career and minimal sailing experience, but she lived up to her sailing promise. She and her husband quit their jobs, bought a 33-foot catamaran and blithely sailed away! The challenges were immense - storms at sea, a collision with a whale and the threat of pirates - but her greatest challenge was the emotional turmoil their adventurous and uncertain lifestyle created. Her relationship deteriorating, Alayne was forced to deal with her fear and understand what drove her to continue to sail across vast unpredictable oceans - with only her husband to turn to. After four years, they came home as circumnavigators - and still married. An honest, deeply moving and wonderfully woven tale of a young woman's journeys - into herself, her marriage and around the world. Anyone in a partnership - man or woman, sailor or not - will benefit from this book.

Alayne Main sailed over 32,000 nautical miles with her husband on their catamaran. She now practices medicine and lives beside a lake in Southwestern Ontario with her husband and two young children. This is her first book.