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"Anyone crazy enough to buy a boat deserves all the headaches he gets," said Chuck. "What kind of boat are you looking for?"

"Oh, something about 35 feet. We're going to sail around the world."

"You poor kids," he said sympathetically.

At Middle age, Herb and Nancy Payson decided they needed a change, why not give up life on shore, quit their in jobs in the smoky nightclubs of Los Angeles and take up the cruising life. In Sea Foam, their 36-foot ketch, the Payson's and their large brood of teenage children cruised the Pacific for six and a half years. They experienced a certain amount of stark terror, but their delights far outbalanced the draw backs.

Anyone seriously dreaming of setting off to sea should read Blown Away. Families who are already out there should make it bedtime reading as Herb shows the way families interact in the close quarters of a sailing boat at sea. But even those who find their ordered onshore existences good and fulfilling can hardly escape a twinge of envy while reading this amusing, instructive and wholly delightful adventure.

This special 35th anniversary edition is enhanced with a foreword by Lin Pardey plus Herb's reflections on how cruising affected his children and his relationship with his determined, lifelong partner/wife Nancy.

Herb Payson, a professional jazz musician, ran away to sea with his wife Nancy and four of the six children from their combined family. Over the next two decades, they sailed on three different boats to more than 26 countries, the whole family working along the way to keep their advventures afloat. Herb soon found his voice as a sailing writer and his work appeared regularly in Sail Magazine. His three books, filled with both humor and serious seamanship advise have become classics. When age made sailing less fulfilling, he and Nancy settled in Port Townsend Washington where Herb returned to his musical roots, playing jazz piano.