Uncharted

Praise

“Refreshingly relatable…Uncharted [is a] firm reminder that despite the independent allure of solo travel, sometimes we can’t change on our own.”
—Outside

“Like Cheryl Strayed and M. Wylie Blanchett, Kim Brown Seely reminds us that the best travel narratives are about emotional explorations even more than physical ones. Uncharted has all the adventure you might expect when an inexperienced couple takes a too large sailboat too far north, on a quest to escape an empty nest and find a white Spirit bear. But what makes this book exceptional is the way its journey slows you down and expands your soul.”
—Erica Bauermeister, bestselling author of The School of Essential Ingredients

“Seely’s travel writing is luminous, her prose mystical and revelatory…[her] nautical journey makes for an intimate, satisfying narrative.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Uncharted is a marvelous journey of beauty and wonder, love and loss, loons and eagles, hemlocks and giant kelp, sea wolves, humpback whales, and bears. Kim Brown Seely celebrates it all: gale warnings, napkin-drawn maps, the luxury of slowness, the exuberance of disco dancing at the dish sink, and the hard-won grace of letting go and stepping out into the rain.”       
—Ana Maria Spagna, author of Uplake
 
“Uncharted is the Moby Dick of empty-nest tales. Kim Brown Seely, her sons suddenly grown-up and gone, journeys on a sailboat through risky Northwest waters, meditating on the pains and blessings of marriage, parenthood, and escape to the wilds. She writes so exquisitely well—you can hear the humpback whales breathe.”         
—Blaine Harden, author of Escape from Camp 14
 
“Kim Seely’s page-turning meditation on marriage, family, letting go, and the pull of the unknown is equal parts inspiration and confessional, with the untamed Pacific Northwest coast as a backdrop. A deftly written Wild for the empty-nest set—and for anyone who’s ever arrived at a crossroads in life—it lays bare a reckoning with midlife in all its messy, tearful, triumphant revelation.”     
—Marika Cain, Virtuoso Life
 
“Uncharted takes us on a voyage of adventure that is at its heart, a meditation on the changing nature of love. It is a wise and insightful, funny and always frank, at times even terrifying memoir of two people rediscovering themselves together, set against the challenges and exaltations of majestic wild nature.”       
—Leslie T. Sharpe, author of The Quarry Fox
 
“A beautifully transporting journey.” 
—Paul Nicklen, National Geographic photographer

“Through uncommonly brilliant storytelling, Uncharted takes us on a timeless and gripping journey of transformation. The raw power of nature strips away impediments to perception and sets the stage with the moon and tides; the sun and seasons; the wind and rain; indigenous cultures; and wildly mystical encounters with beings of the land, water, and sky. Kim Brown Seely writes intimately of this magical quest with her husband, Jeff, navigating the sea, their own relational intimacy, family, and their inner journeys of initiation—awakening ancient longings and wisdom. Uncharted is a must read for those feeling lost in modern confusion, as Kim’s beautiful and accessible writing provides an essential map back home to ourselves.”
—Jon Young, author of What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World