Uncharted: A Couple's Epic Empty-Nest Adventure Sailing from One Life to Another

(Hardback)

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Faced with an empty nest, a couple embarks on an epic voyage across land and sea, seeking the mythical blonde Kermode bear-and their truest selves Kim Brown Seely and her husband had been damn good parents for more than twenty years. That was coming to an end as their youngest son was about to move across the country. The economy was in freefall and their jobs stagnant, so they impulsively decided to buy a big broken sailboat, learn how to sail it, and head up through the Salish Sea and the Inside Passage to an expanse of untamed wilderness in search of the elusive blonde Kermode bear that only lives in a secluded Northwest forest. Wise and lyrical, this heartfelt memoir recounts their voyage of discovery into who they were as individuals and as a couple, unfolding amid the stunningly wild archipelago on the far edge of the continent.

Reviews

Nancy Pearl Book Award Finalist 2020

SilverNautilusBook Award Winner 2019

Refreshingly relatable...Uncharted[is a]firm reminder that despite the independent allure of solo travel, sometimeswe cant change on our own.
Outside

Exquisitely written.
Forbes

Seely captures the action and nature encountered on the couples journey in lyrical prose and descriptions. As they navigate their way through fiords and rough waters and feel the sting of cold air, they also find a new way to envision their future together.
Wall Street Journal, The Best Books About Retirement and Aging of 2019

Like Cheryl Strayed and M. Wylie Blanchett, Kim Brown Seely reminds us that the best travel narratives are about emotional explorations even more than physical ones.
Erica Bauermeister, bestselling author of The School of Essential Ingredients

Seelys travel writing is luminous, her prose mystical and revelatory...[her]nautical journey makes for an intimate, satisfying narrative.
Publishers Weekly

Just because Ill never follow in Seely's footsteps doesnt mean that reading the account of her journey wasnt wonderfully exciting from the safety of my sofa.
Margot Kahn, Bust

There are close calls, lost anchors and lost tempers, yet what Seely finds along the way makes Uncharted one of the most compelling books of nature writing that Ive read in a while.
Post and Courier

Unchartedis a marvelous journey of beauty and wonder, love and loss, loons and eagles, hemlocks and giant kelp, sea wolves, humpback whales, and bears.
Ana Maria Spagna, author ofUplake

Unchartedis theMoby Dickof empty-nest tales. Kim Brown Seely, her sons suddenly grown-up and gone, journeys on a sailboat through risky Northwest waters, meditating on the pains and blessings of marriage, parenthood, and escape to the wilds.
Blaine Harden, author ofEscape from Camp 14

Kim Seelys page-turning meditation on marriage, family, letting go, and the pull of the unknown is equal parts inspiration and confessional, with the untamed Pacific Northwest coast as a backdrop.
Marika Cain,Virtuoso Life

Unchartedtakes us on a voyage of adventure that is at its heart, a meditation on the changing nature of love.
LeslieT. Sharpe, author ofThe Quarry Fox

A beautifully transporting journey.
Paul Nicklen,National Geographicphotographer

Author Bio

Kim Brown Seely, the 2016 Lowell Thomas Journalist of the Year, has worked in publishing on both coasts, including as senior editor atTravel & Leisure, contributing editor atNational Geographic Adventure, and travel editor at Microsoft and Amazon. Her writing has also appeared inOutside,National Geographic Traveler,Sunset,Coastal Living, andVirtuoso Life, where she has been a contributing writer for nearly 20 years.