After spending 16 years on a sailboat, a Kelowna author is sharing her story.
Dave Ball and Arlene Galisky now reside in Kelowna, but spent 16 years living on their sailboat in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. Arlene’s new book, Dreamers and Doers, Sailing the South Pacific, covers the first three years of that odyssey.
They had just retired, had never been on a sailboat before, and knew nothing of the sea, so after buying a boat, they learned to sail it while circumnavigating Vancouver Island. They then sailed across the Pacific Ocean, going from Victoria to Hawaii and through the islands of the South Pacific to Australia, according to the author’s news release.
Upon reaching their goal, she writes in her book, “I don’t think we appreciated the fact that we had achieved our dream because the dream had become our reality. In a period of 507 days, we spent 102 days at sea, sailing 10,300 nautical miles (19,075 km). That experience changed us forever. The truth was that we enjoyed living on the boat, enjoyed the adventure, but most of all had tasted a freedom that we never knew existed.”
They both kept journals, recording all the details of their adventure, and Arlene then spent five years writing her book.
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“I felt so fortunate to have been part of this voyage, which is what compelled me to write about it,” she said.
The author grew up in Hixon and spent most of her working life in Williams Lake and Prince George. Her first book, Days Gone By, was self-published in 1988.
Dreamers and Doers, Sailing the South Pacific, is available through local bookstores and on Amazon. The official book launch is scheduled at Indigo-Chapters, Orchard Park Shopping Centre, Nov. 4, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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