Taleisin's Tales: Sailing Towards the Southern Cross (Unabridged‪)‬

Including stories from paradise and hard-won lessons in seamanship,Taleisin's Tales reflects back to the first miles Lin and Larry Pardey gained together on the second boat they built lovingly with teak carvel planking over sawn black locust frames.

The book includes details from outfitting, provisioning, and final detailing during the early months Lin and Larry spent getting to know their new bluewater cruiser, as well as moments of melancholy as they let go of attachments to their first trusty boat, Seraffyn.

The story takes the listener through those initial cautious 1000 coastal miles between California and the Sea of Cortez, discussing everything from sail handling to dinghy racing to the relative luxuries of bicycles and a custom-built sitztub. It reveals surprising and pleasant engagements with other sailors and locals along the Baja Peninsula. Then it launches the listener across the Pacific, sailing with the Pardeys on Taleisin's first offshore leg to French Polynesia, through the Cook Islands and Tonga, and on to New Zealand, where they eventually made their new home.

If there is a lesson to be gained from listening to Taleisin's Tales, it's that slowing the pace and taking each day as it comes brings unexpected moments of clarity and joy. And that sailing across an ocean on a small boat is not easy but, with the right partner and attitude, can be beautifully rewarding.