She-Faring

In part one of this full-color illustrated book, She-Faring: From Fear to Magic at Sea, Cheryl Ray faces the winds and waves of fear as a reluctant sailor who gives in to living her husband's dream of sailing. An adventurer at heart, she takes the reader on a voyage through the ebbs and flows of self-discovery and transformation. Ray does not understand her husband's belief that "sailing is magic." She believes she's an incompetent sailor. She fears calamity and possible death at sea. The reader will sail with Ray down the Pacific coast from San Francisco to Panama. During this sail, Ray discovers the magic of her husband's belief. After three sailboats and thousands of nautical miles under her life jacket, she is no longer reluctant, but an enthusiastic sailor.

In part two of She-Faring, Ray continues the theme of sea stories, but in fiction. These imaginative tales include the mermaid Brizo, turtles, whales, mermen, marriage proposals, and a meeting with Venus. In one story, a naive tourist couple, Carol and Carl, make love on the sandy beach in El Gato, Mexico's Sea of Cortez. In another story, sailor Jack confronts death after falling from his boat into a fast-moving river in Panama. Finally, to tie it all up, there is the "Ask Me Anything About Life on the Water" advice column by Ms. Water & Waves, who answers a lonesome sailor's query on enticing his partner, who fears the ocean, to join him sailing.

Splashed between the prose pieces are a few poems. Vivid original watercolor paintings illustrate the stories.

If you are an armchair traveler, a sailor, or just curious about the cruising life or the mysterious body of water that is the ocean, Ray invites you to dive into these spirited seawater stories.