The Gentleman's Guide to Passages South: The Thornless Path to Windward
Orphaned by World War II, Van Sant worked his way through childhood at dozens of crazy jobs. He learned to sail early by borrowing sailing skiffs from beach lifeguards. After university he got a sailboat with a plan that, when the sailboats got big enough, he'd get out of the rat race and go sailing to simpler places for a simpler life. After a decade in aerospace IT he spent four decades of cruising, working as a consultant systems engineer and writing and speaking in countries of Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, picking up six languages along the way. Returning to the Americas in 1979 he settled into cruising the myriad islands between Florida and South America.  Having long ago "copped out" or "gone Galt", Van Sant got used to living freely, without every step insured or hobbled by cat's cradles of regulations, government programs, monthly bills and nettling bosses. He lived without ever-present signs of "NO smoking", "NO fishinig", "No swimming, loitering, littering, entry, passing, parking in the park — NO!". If you want to escape, he can tell you how. You can read some of his and others' adventures in world cruising in his book MARGARITA CAT. Van Sant has, alas, sold his last boat and lives ashore with his wife Rosa in their home, Kembali ke Tanah, high over the sea in the Dominican Republic. See KEMBALI at www.ThornlessPath.com.