A history professor heeds the call to adventure and discovers her strength and resilience in this spirited sailing novel from Wyatt (author of Prairie Girls). Teaching her course on homesteaders of northwest Canada, Rebecca meets a student, Brac, who participates in the Van Isle 360, a two-week yacht race around Vancouver Island. During a race, Brac says, “You take all those fears, grab a handful, and throw them out," words that will prove prophetic for Rebecca. At Brac’s invitation, she joins the land crew of the 45-year-old yacht Gallivant, a support team following the race, furnishing supplies, but not actually sailing. But a funny thing happens on Rebecca’s path toward an edifying but not-especially-challenging lark around Vancouver Island: an emergency knocks out one of Gallivant’s veteran six-man crew, and suddenly Rebecca, “the backup to the backup,” is asked to join.

So, with certification from one Basic Sailing Course, Rebecca takes part in one of the great international sailing challenges, facing all the danger, thrills, glory, camaraderie, and hard work, all of which Wyatt describes with crisp clarity, convincing accuracy, and a teacher’s zeal for explanation. Simple sketches clarify the route, nautical maneuverings, and finer points of sails and jibs. Not all of the team approves of Rebecca, and Wyatt pairs the journey of the Gallivant with Rebecca’s own route toward confidence and healing. Nobody is as hard on Rebecca as she is on herself, in the form of hectoring inner voices that, ever since her childhood in the foster system, have told her she will fail.

“The romance and adventure” are real, Rebecca muses after much hard work, “but they came with sore muscles and wet hair.” They also come with real danger, which Wyatt dramatizes with precision and power, capturing Rebecca’s breath-by-breath confrontation with possible death. The novel, though, is a pleasant breeze, attentive to history, wildlife, and everything an attentive novice would feel and discover on the voyage of a lifetime.

Takeaway: Spirited novel of a novice sailing in a race around Vancouver Island.

Comparable Titles: Hannah Stowe’s Move Like Water, Victor Suthren’s Canadian Stories of the Sea.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: B+
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A