Product Description

Herb and Nancy Payson spent six and a half years cruising the Pacific with their sizable brood of teenaged children packed into the 36-foot ketch SEA FOAM. Their globe-spanning travels and side-splitting adventures are recounted in Blown Away, a sort of Swiss Family Robinson by way of the Marx Brothers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47132 in Books
• Published on: 1995-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 251 pages

Review
...amusing, occasionally touching and wholly delightful adventure. -- The Dolphin Book Club News, Midsummer 1980

Blown Away lets the reader laugh as he learns - a classic comedy of riches. -- SAIL, July 1995

The story is a realistic portrait of an adventurous, enterprising family, with enough sailing lore to satisfy most bluewater buffs. -- Publisher's Weekly, April 1980

To the South Sea islands with a family aboard a 36' ketch; entertaining, witty story. -- WoodenBoat, March/April 1996

A realistic portrait of an adventurous, enterprising family, with enough sailing lore to satisfy most bluewater buffs. -- Publishers Weekly, April 1980

Getting away from it all was not an impossible dream for Herb and Nancy Payson, a California couple: they sold their belongings, purchased a ketch, SEAFOAM, and sailed for the Southern Seas. In their workaday lives Herb was a nightclub pianist and Nancy a cocktail waitress; he was an experienced sailor; she was eager to learn. So they set out with their children, one just 10 years old. And they enjoyed their journeys. When cash ran low everybody went to work: he and a son worked at carpentry in New Zealand: nancy and a daughter made blouses for a boutique in Papeete and the 10-year-old made tourist souvenirs from coconut shells. The story is a realistic portrait of an adventurous, enterprising family, with enough sailing lore to satisfy most bluewater buffs. --Publisher's Weekly, April 1980

Herb s self-deprecation is a wonderful counterpoint to his serious seamanship. Blown Away lets the reader laugh as he learns. A classic comedy of riches. --Sail, July 1995

To the South Sea islands with a family aboard a 36 ketch; entertaining, witty story. --Wooden Boat, March/April 1996

About the Author
From their first seven-year voyage throughout the Central and South Pacific, to their 26,000-mile trailersailer cruise of North America, to their nine years spent cruising the East Coast and the Caribbean from Canada to Brazil, Herb and Nancy Payson have grown from stumbling neophytes to experienced sailors. Herb was a professional musician before retiring (ha!) to cruising. Nancy gave up house, job, and all familiar safety nets to join him as a voyaging partner. They've been regular contributors to SAIL magazine for 24 years and Herb is presently editing the popular SAIL page &Things That Work.

Customer Reviews

WONDERFUL SAILING ADVENTURE
This book is one of my favorites. If you love true adventures, and real-life drama, read this book! Herb Payson does a wonderful job in drawing the reader into his boat and taking us for a ride! You will have a mixture of dread, excitement, and anticipation as they cruise along from island to island. This book will make you want to sell everything you own and move into your own boat. But don't let their setbacks discourage you. They have several mishaps while out at sea... But I won't spoil the fun and tell you what happens ---- This is good reading and I dare you to put the book down before you are finished!!! Happy armchair sailing!

Great read for the Landlocked
I'm landlocked in Colorado, with no real desire to cruise on an ocean or even a bay, yet I really enjoyed reading this book. Herb and his wife, Nancy, were ordinary people except with perhaps even more limited funds than most Americans. Yet they impulsively decided to take to the sea. Somewhere along the way Herb started writing articles about his adventures (they almost always needed extra money because something else on the boat had broken). Eventually that led to this amusing, laugh out loud while reading it, book.
Herb displays a fine sense of humor that never comes across as mean, just amusing as he describes himself and the people he meets along the way. This is a good book for sharing with others, then tucking it away on the bookshelf for another read next year. And if any cruiser is trying to explain to a landlubber what it's like on the water, this book would be the perfect gift to share both the bad (lost in the middle of a pitch black night surrounded by dangerous coral heads) and the glorious (a village throwing a party in honor of your visit). A charming book that is aging extremely well.

Living a dream, an honest and fun look.
Both of these books ("Blown Away" and "You Can't Blow Home Again") are great and should be read one after the other (The second is the continuing saga). The true story of a family that sells everything to buy a boat and sail around the world. They only make it as far as the south pacific, but it makes for year after year of adventures. As a sailor myself (coastal, not blue water) I felt he did a great job of capturing the sharp contrast between the elation, exhilaration and sheer terror that can be found in sailing. Mr. Payson's honest, care free and "oh well" attitude is something that I wish I could capture for myself. Someone who does not mind laughing at himself.

I only have one critique of the books. Mr. Payson uses nautical terms and the names of boat parts as if they are a part of everyone's daily vocabulary. I sail a simple sloop configuration and can name every component that is applicable to our boat. But his repeated use of terms unique to multi-masted, wooden masted, bow-sprinted boats kept sending me to the nautical dictionary. Since the book does not appear to be targeted at highly experienced sailors, a little more explanation would have been nice.