Customer Reviews

Narrow Waters: An Artist's Memoir of Sailing Waterways

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This delightful book allows arm-chair sailors to experience the beauty and whimsy of traveling the narrow waters of the Intra Coastal Waterway while reminding any seasoned traveler of the joys you discovered underway. Ms. Carstarphen has captured the beauty of areas all along the way not only with her words but also with the wonderful art work on every page. If you have never anchored in a quiet cove and watched raccoons playing on the shore or sailed through a crowded harbor surrounded by towering ships and busy tugs this journal will take you there. A grand treat spiritually and visually!

Anyone who loves sailing and seeing new places and creatures will find this book a delight. Dee Carstarphen takes us along with her and her husband Stuart Hopkins on their 1200 mile sail in the Sea Wind along the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway from Norfolk south to the Dry Tortugas. Dee is an accomplished watercolor artist who has earlier written and illustrated Maverick Sea Fare Maverick Sea Fare: A Caribbean Cook Book and The Conch Book. Her sketch log of this trip brings the entire route of a memorable cruise to life through whimsical drawings of shipboard scenes, marine flora and fauna, maps, the Sea Wind in heavy weather, sunsets etc. For those of us who will never be able to make this all-but-inaccessible journey ourselves, we thank Dee for taking us along with her on the sail. I loved it.

I just love this chronicle of the author's journey down the Inland Waterway. He embellishes his journal with handsome and informative drawings of wildlife, craft they see, and maps of creeks they explore. It's a true escape.

I often open this book when I'm ready for a little escape. We have cruised these waters for many years and Dee Carstarphen's writing and drawings always brings me right back to being aboard our own boat. Her illustrations are superb.