The National Outdoor Book Awards announced their 2007 winners this week, and Blue Horizons – Dispatches from Distant Seas was honored in the Outdoor Literature category. Released in 2006, this collection of sailing stories shares personal stories of inner journeys, and courageous tales of outward expeditions.
After a 3-year, 35,000 mile circumnavigation with her partner, Beth Leonard realized that life on shore was not working — the sea was calling her back. So, four years later, they set out again, this time on a 50,000 mile journey that lasted for six years. This book chronicles that voyage — a compilation of inspiring vignettes from Beth’s columns in Blue Water Sailing magazine, which she wrote throughout the journey.
Leonard has sailed more than 85,000 blue water miles over the past thirteen years, ranging from tropical oceans to Tasmania, Cape Horn, and the arctic seas north of Iceland. Blue Horizons includes dispatches from their sailing adventures to Newfoundland, Iceland, Norway, the Caribbean, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, the South Pacific and British Columbia.