24 MARINER / 2016 - ISSUE 3
People
Witherill weathered his share of storms as a merchant mariner (right)
before making a memorable cruise to the Bahamas on his sailboat.I
n the opening pages of a new book by Dave Witherill
’76, From Sea of Life to Sea of Dreams, he recounts
being on the bridge as Captain of the 987-foot tanker
S/R Long Beach in 1998 in the middle of the North
Pacific Ocean with a full load of crude oil bound for
To k y o B a y.
“At that point I had been at sea professionally for
22 years, 10 as a captain,” he writes. “...as I studied
the weather maps it appeared we were sailing into the
mouth of a cannon that was firing one storm after an-
other in our direction.” What normally would have been
a 9-day run turned into a 15-day challenge with winds
sometimes 60 knots and wave heights more than 45 feet.
“A voyage such as this makes a person dream of bet-
ter days,” writes Witherilll, “of white sand beaches and
palm trees that seemed a million miles away.”
In 2011, he retired and with his wife Gail, the “Ad-
miral,” began plans for a voyage to the Bahamas aboard
their 34-foot sailboat.
“I had a hip replacement and was stuck in the house
for February and March during recovery,” says Witherill.
“A friend started a blog with photos from cruising the
Exumas, and that planted the seed.”
What follows is a pleasurable account of the couple’s
cruise from their homeport of Portland, Maine along
the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) more than 2,000 miles
to the aqua blue waters (with white sand beaches and
palms) of the southern Exumas, Bahamas, and their
return home eight months later.
Highlights of the book include making the run along
the ICW and then hunkering down in Norfolk, Virginia
as Hurricane Sandy passed, crossing the Gulf Stream
and Grand Bahama Bank on the way to cruising the
Exuma and Abaco Cays, and reflections on Witherill’s
career at sea “with a few of my better sea stories!,” he
notes.
Whether you’re a working
mariner or an armchair sailor,
Witherill’s book is a good read
when you’re tucked in warm
on a stormy winter night and
thinking what your next port of
call might be.
The book can be purchased
at fromseaoflife.com, or the
Maine Authors Publishing web-
site, and bookstores in Maine,
including MMA’s.CRUISING TALE THAT TEMPTS
Vicariously step aboard a Bahamas bound boat