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Frustrated with teaching philosophy to bored South Dakota undergraduates, Kent is desperate for a way out. Then he discovers sailboats.
He couldn’t afford to retire, but in a sailboat the wind would blow the family where they wanted to go, and the sea would feed them. Expenses would be minimal, and they would reduce their footprint on the fragile earth. What a fantastic opportunity it would be for the children! After reading sailing classics (they’re academics), Pam and Kent decide to leap into the unknown.
What could go wrong?
They sell everything, give up their jobs, and take their two children across the Atlantic, where they purchase a small sailboat. They sail (not without some compromises) to the Caribbean with a book in one hand and a sextant in the other in the days before GPS. Miraculously, they reach the Caribbean, but there are troubles even in paradise, and after a year, they return to South Dakota. However, the dream does not die.
Once the children are grown, Pam and Kent sell their home and possessions again, venturing through the Great Lakes and the Bahamas to the Caribbean and beyond. For over six years, they travel to offbeat destinations, making daring overland journeys through Central America, Venezuela, and Colombia—a country then known as one of the world’s most dangerous. Confronted with equipment failures, storms, illness, financial worries, and family complications, Kent still wants to cross Panama and sail the Pacific. Pam has doubts. Can he win her over?
Told with wit and humor in two voices, Kent’s and Pam’s, this gripping tale of daring, determination, and the luck of fools may inspire YOU, too, to cast off into the unknown.
Places traveled:
EnglandSpainPortugalCanary IslandsCaribbeanMexicoBelizePuerto RicoHaitiJamaicaTrinidadVenezuelaColombiaCentral AmericaTHe Virgin Islands (U.S. and British)FloridaThe Great LakesTrent-Severn WaterwayErie CanalHudson RiverIntracoastal WaterwayMaps, glossary, photos, diagrams, itinerary, and bibliography.
352 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2023
This editionFormat
352 pages, Paperback
Expected publication
July 1, 2023 by Jacana Press
ISBN
9798987009703
Language
English
From the Publisher
Finalist for the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards
Winners will be announced on October 1.
Eat, Pray, Love meets The Swiss Family Robinson in We Ran Away to Sea
Pam, Kent, and boys on a trial sail on Lake Superior in 1984, before the beginning of their great adventure.
Follow Pam and Kent, if you dare, when they give up their comfortable midwestern lives and take to sea in a small boat with their two young sons, seeking an honest, simple, and more meaningful life. Amidst volatile family dynamics and constant tests of their loving relationships, these inexperienced sailors encounter unexpected joys and challenges, and draw on previously unknown strengths. They find peace and beauty in pristine wildernesses and the expanses of the sea, and face terrifying storms and the sometimes challenging complexities of navigation. They travel by bus into the then dangerous interior of Colombia, are disturbed by the poverty of Haiti, and take delight in unspoiled Nevis, Mona Island, and the Macareo River. Pam ‘s delightfully detailed letters are filled with keen and often witty observations of a time now past, and Kent’s stories and reminiscences are succint and infused with wry humor. These two dared to dream and take a path less traveled. Perhaps they will inspire you to do the same.
George Kent Kedl
Born on New Year’s Eve, 1940, Kent grew up enjoying the outdoors, competing in football and track, and trying to outdo his older brother Doug in their hometown of Sheridan, Wyoming. He quit school during his senior year at the University of Wyoming, giving up his engineering scholarship, and served in the Peace Corps in Colombia. Upon his return, he enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Oregon, and married Pamela Thompson. He taught philosophy at South Dakota State University in Brookings for more than twenty years. We Ran Away to Sea is his first book, combining Pamela Thompson Kedl’s letters and his stories, edited by his second wife, Linnea Hendrickson, who thought the stories and letters should be a book.
Pamela Thompson Kedl (1944-2009)
“Pamela Kedl has spent her life trying to resist other people’s schedules and avoiding being a professional at anything. Her work has ranged from the esoteric—a flutist, a potter, and a transoceanic sailor—to the pragmatic: a welfare worker, an English teacher, a librarian’s assistant, and a waitress. As soon as she can figure a way to finance it, she wants to travel to the Pacific with her husband, her two sons, and a cat to finish their circumnavigation.” (Women and Houses: An Anthology of Prose, Poetry, and Photography (Unipress: Brookings, SD, 1988)
Somewhere along the way, Pam decided against sailing the Pacific, but the letters written during her sailing years make up a large part of We Ran Away to Sea. After she and Kent left the sailboat, she took up photography and created stunning collages by piecing together smaller photos to create large landscapes.
Boys and Pam on Jacana, 1985
Jake meets the family in St. Thomas, USVI in January 1985.
Kent, Pam, Andy 1984-85
Kent, Pam, with Andy in the Hammock on Jacana, somewhere in the Caribbean, 1984-85.
Playing Pirate in the Caribbean
Kent and Pam play pirate on Jacana, 1985.
Sailing Coot, 1990s
Pam and Kent start over with a new boat, Coot, 1992 to 2000.
ASIN : B0C7T3LYXD
Publisher : Jacana Press (June 12, 2023)
Language : English
Paperback : 352 pages
ISBN-13 : 979-8987009703
Item Weight : 15.7 ounces
Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.88 x 8.5 inches
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