In 1989 Dave Bricker set off across the Gulf Stream in a small sailboat with $30 in his pocket. His voyages aboard The Blue Monk through the Bahamas and across the Atlantic to Gibraltar are recounted in vivid prose. The Blue Monk is a journey of self-discovery set in a world of saturated colors, remarkable people, hazardous reefs, and transcendent beauty. Bricker chronicles a little-known fragment of Miami's history and encourages us all to embrace a world of power and magic that lies only a few steps off the sidewalk. The Blue Monk is cloth bound with an attractive modernist dust jacket, gold foil stamped, and typeset to 1920s "hot metal" standards. Big publishers use small type, tight leading (line spacing), and narrow margins to save ink, paper, and shipping costs on huge print runs. This book demonstrates how self-publishers can exceed industry standards to produce elegant, comfortable to read books. The Blue Monk received a 2014 IPPY Award for "Excellence in Independent Publishing."