A charming memoir of midlife by the bestselling author of MAYFLOWER and IN THE HEART OF THE SEA, recounting his attempt to recapture a national sailing championship he'd won at 22.

In the spring of 1992, Nat Philbrick was in his late 30s, living with his family on Nantucket, feeling stranded and longing for that thrill of victory he once felt after winning a national sailing championship in his youth. Was it a midlife crisis? It was certainly a watershed for the journalist-turned-stay-at-home dad, who impulsively decided to throw his hat into the ring, or water, again.

With the bemused approval of his wife and children, Philbrick used the off-season on the island as his solitary training ground, sailing his tiny Sunfish to its remotest corners, experiencing the haunting beauty of its tidal creeks, inlets and wave-battered sandbars. On ponds, bays, rivers and finally at the championship on a lake in the heartland of America, he sailed through storms and memories, racing for the prize, but finding something unexpected about himself instead.