Christian Beamish, a former editor at The Surfer's Journal, envisioned
a low-tech, self-reliant exploration for surf along the coast of North
America, using primarily clothes and instruments available to his
ancestors, and the 18-foot boat he would build by hand in his garage.
How the vision met reality - and how the two came to shape each other -
places The Voyage of the Cormorant in the great American tradition of
tales of life at sea, and what it has to teach us.