Book Review: Seven at Sea

When I was sent the synopsis to Seven at Sea , I thought it sounded so intriguing. The book is written by Erik and Emily Orten – a husband and wife who, along with their 5 kids, learned how to sail and after a few years decided to buy a boat and spend 10 months living on the water sailing to the Caribbean and back. A New York family who decided to learn to sail, leave their city life behind, and live on a cramped boat for 10 months. What?!

They take turns writing sections of chapters or chapters themselves and tell everything from traveling to the British Virgin Islands to improve their sailing to shopping for a boat to inadvertently staying in St. Martin for months longer than planned due to engine problems. The adventure sounded amazing and left me in awe of this family. I don’t know how they didn’t go absolutely crazy living in such tight quarters for 10 months together! Oh did I mention they sing and play instruments together? They would make friends with other sailing families and people they met at different islands and ports and jam together. They’re literally like a sailing Von Trapp family!

As awesome as their sailing adventure seems, I know for sure that I could never do that. But it did inspire me to keep pursuing what I love and dream about because life is short. Go on the adventure. Take the risks.

Here are two quotes/excerpts that really stuck with me from the book:

“There will never be enough money. There will never be a convenient time to go. Time only moves in one direction, and it keeps moving faster.”

When Emily was speaking to her eldest daughter and asked her how she think she’s changed while on Fezywig, their boat. “I don’t think I’ve changed,” she said. “I’ve become even more myself. I’ve gone further down the path that I was already on.’ Astute and articulate, she’d captured a truth I hadn’t even considered. When people said something was life-changing, what did they mean? Did they become a completely different person? Maybe, but that wasn’t my experience. Like Karina, I was myself, only more so.”

Seven at Sea really made me think about how any dream you have can come true if you do the work to make it come true. I mean, I’d love for my dreams to just magically come true but I guess that kind of thing only happens to like 1 in a million people. Though, it’d be nice to be that one person!

Here’s to going out there and living the impossible dream!

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