Here in Hawaii you don’t have to go far for an ocean adventure. For some of us it’s as near as our backyard.
But for Audrey Sutherland, she’d already been there and done that, be it swimming around the island of Molokai or solo kayaking throughout the Pacific.
"PADDLING NORTH"
By Audrey Sutherland
(Patagonia Press, $22.95)
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So in 1981, at the young age of 60, she quit her job as a vocational counselor to pursue the journey of her dreams: an ocean trek along the southeast coast of Alaska in an inflatable 9-foot kayak. The journey would span two summers and 800 miles along the Inside Passage from Ketchikan to Skagway.
"Sometimes you have to go ahead and do the most important things, the things you believe in, and not wait until years later, when you say, ‘I wish I had gone, done, kissed …’ What we most regret are not the errors we made, but the things we didn’t do," says Sutherland in her new book, "Paddling North."
The Hawaii woman, whose mantra is "go simple, go solo, go now," raised her four kids, including noted surfer Jock Sutherland, as a single mother and previously penned two books about her kayaking expeditions in the islands, "Paddling Hawai‘i"(1998) and"Paddling My Own Canoe" (1978).
Her latest is a compilation of experiences from the first two of her more than 20 annual Alaska trips. Sutherland’s wanderlust and desire to be alone with nature are almost contagious.
Follow as she paddles along the rivers and waterways of Alaska exploring mining towns, hiking, photographing wildlife and cooking gourmet meals via campfire. Included are some of her favorite recipes, such as an easy-to-pack dried version of Portuguese bean soup that you make at home and rehydrate at camp.
Throughout her travels, Sutherland takes Hawaii with her, and she recalls various stories, chants or sayings while she paddles. Worry with her as she wonders whether the patched tear in her boat will stand up to the jostling of large waves. Share in her triumphs and fears as she narrates the voyage and reveals her thoughts and feelings while navigating rough waters, searching for shelter or avoiding bears.
Sutherland, now in her 90s, is a deft storyteller and captures the details of her journey in an entertaining narrative that’s hard to put down. She even provides a list of her gear and the books and maps she needed to safely plan and execute her trips.
"Paddling North," with enchanting illustrations by Yoshiko Yamamoto, is a testament to Sutherland’s unwavering spirit of adventure, but it ultimately inspires a sense of the present, of doing things now, whether your adventure be big or small. Go now.
Sutherland leads by her example of how life should be lived outside your comfort zone, how age is just a number and, more important, that it’s never too late to embark on a journey.
Misty-Lynn Sanico is a co-founder of HawaiiReads.com.
