“Sailing off to find herself
Author starts life over with an adventure at sea
Imagine, just for a moment, selling all of your possessions, including your home and your car, leaving everything and everyone you know behind, and setting off to sail around the world.
This is exactly what Linda Kenyon did. Her marriage of more than 25 years had ended – suddenly – and she found herself living alone in a Waterloo condo with her dog and her books.
“Then I met a sailor, and although I had vowed never to put myself in the way of another broken heart, I was restless and lonely,” Kenyon says. “My life had begun to feel too small.
“I don’t know if it was courage or foolishness, but I thought: What do I have to lose?”
Sea Over Bow: A North Atlantic Crossing is not just another story about sailing around the world – though, yes, Kenyon has travelled across the ocean on a 43-foot steel sailboat.
It is not just another love story; though, yes, Kenyon is unabashedly happy and in love.
It is so much more.
It is a story of courage, of second chances, of taking the leap, and of finding one’s true home. It is a story chock full of reasons to never ever settle.
Kenyon grew up in a family pinched by poverty, with a mother who was terrified of so many things – and who instilled that fear in her daughters.
Kenyon married young, and spent much of her adult life as a farm wife. Then her marriage ended and she found herself alone. She was not a person who took risks; she was not the kind of person who would sell off everything to sail across the ocean. Or was she?
“I finally became my real self, the person I was meant to be,” Kenyon says.
Suddenly life was full of happiness and great adventures. There was an 18-hour gale with 40-knot winds right before making landfall in the Azores. There were weeks spent out in the open water, and time spent at anchor in quiet harbours experiencing the local culture.
There was the peace that came from the hours on night watch – under the large sky with only the stars above.
“There is something about the solitude, and all I am doing is watching the sails and watching the water and thinking,” Kenyon says of her favourite part of sailing.
“I felt so small out there, but big at the same time. I felt like I was exactly in the right place, like I was a part of the universe. It was incredibly beautiful. You’re just there and you’re just present.”
The journey had such a profound effect on her life that she wanted to write about it; she wanted to share how worthwhile it was to find the courage to start again – to take a chance.
“Don’t be afraid to start again,” Kenyon advises. “The temptation in life is to be safe and to be careful and to settle for too little and that’s what most people do. Just don’t. Don’t settle for too little.
“Find the courage and just start again – you won’t believe where it can take you.””

— Laura Kupcis Prairie Books NOW

““The only thing more foolish than a middle-aged woman taking up horseback riding is a fifty-year-old running away with a sailor.” After a painful divorce, Linda Kenyon decides she will never risk loving again, but when she meets a kind, handsome sailor who’s prepping for a big cruise, she jumps aboard with him. If this sounds like a romance, it is! And I must say, Sea Over Bow delighted me! The narrative takes place in a single Atlantic crossing where Kenyon reflects back on her life, her family members, their heartbreaking health issues, and what she’s learned—and continues to learn—from them all. Like: “Sometimes the weight of being the one who got away is almost unbearable.” But get away Kenyon does, and we get to watch her grow in ocean knowledge, skill, and confidence. While the family flashbacks were a bit jarring at first, I quickly got used to the style and appreciated how these reflections deepened Kenyon’s voyage. She brings her whole self to this crossing and, with crisp writing, beautiful description, gripping action, and a wry sense of humor, she brings us along with her. I fell head over heels for this book!”

— Janna Cawrse Esarey Women Who Sail

Read the full review at Women Who Sail.