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Biography & Autobiography General

Sailing Uphill

An Unconventional Life on the Water

by (author) Sam McKinney

Publisher
TouchWood Editions
Initial publish date
Jun 2010
Category
General, Sailing
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780920663707
    Publish Date
    May 2000
    List Price
    $16.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781927129531
    Publish Date
    Jun 2010
    List Price
    $9.99

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Description

Sam McKinney has spent many of the best parts of his life on the water -- sailing a dory along Canada’s west coast, crewing on the deck of a river steamer, shipping out deep-sea in freighters across the Atlantic. In the middle of his life, when he sold the hull of an ocean-going sailboat which had absorbed two years of his love and labour, he looked at his boat-building shed and thought, “Hmm. With all this lumber, I could build a boat and go across the continent, instead”. So he did. In the Gander he travelled up the Columbia and Snake rivers, down the Missouri, up the Mississippi and Illinois and on, ever eastward, to New York City. It took him four summers and three Ganders, one of which had to be abandoned in the mud of the upper Missouri, but he made it. This is a lovely and evocative memoir by a perceptive and thoughtful writer.

About the author

The late Sam McKinney was a journalist, a small-boat builder, a founder of outward-bound schools and a professional seaman. He was the author of several books, including Reach of Tide, Ring of History and Sailing Uphill. Royalties from the sales of this book will be donated to the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

Sam McKinney's profile page