Bull Canyon: A Boat builder, a Writer and other Wildlife, PDB013 - $24.95 - Category: Narratives & Adventure, General

Bull Canyon: A Boat builder, a Writer and other Wildlife

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Lin Pardey and her husband Larry are internationally famous for their sailing adventures. But in 1980 -- fresh from an eleven years-long sailing journey, where they forged the early years of their marriage on high seas and in exotic locales -- they came to California looking for a good spot to build a boat, test Lin's skills as a writer and taste the apparent security life ashore could offer.

Nestled in a rocky outcropping of winding, sparsely populated dirt roads, 60 miles from the sea and 50 miles from Los Angeles, Bull Canyon would seem an unlikely place for boat-building. But when Lin and Larry set eyes on the abandoned stone cottage at the top of a rutted, dusty lane, it was love at first sight. The house was certainly a fixer-upper, but there was plenty of room to build a boat, not to mention peace, quiet, and an abundance of natural beauty. They knew they'd come home. Bull Canyon would bring them joy, victories and failures but also packrats in the pantries, flooding rains that would make Noah himself cower, the occasional cougar, and an oddball collection of neighbors as ready to assist these hapless appearing newcomers as they were to gossip or occasionally cause trouble. It would be a life lived close to the land, coaxing vegetables out of acrid soil, living side-by-side with wildlife of all types, navigating dangerous roads to simply get to the nearest grocery store, no piped in water, no electricity, no phones not even a proper address to receive mail. Their marriage would be tested, too, working side-by-side, 24/7.

Life in the canyon would prove daunting, gritty, and dangerous, and a tougher bargain in the end than what they'd signed up for. But as tough as life could be there, Bull Canyon was, indeed, the place where dreams could come true. It was here that Lin and Larry tapped into the affirming core of their marriage, accomplished back-breaking physical feats (moving enormous boulders and pouring tons of hot lead, among others), and grew to love the magical yet difficult environment. In the tradition of Under the Tuscan Sun and A Year in Provence, Pardey takes readers on a voyage landlocked, but a voyage nonetheless of the heart, sharing candidly and with great humor the four years she and her determined husband spent in Bull Canyon. From the Thanksgiving when they had to hang the turkey from a ceiling hook to keep it safe from invading animals, to their constant companion, Dog (who is actually a cat), to Lin's run-in with a couple of drunk hunters, to Larry's careful coaxing of rough-sawn timber into the beautiful boat, Taleisin, their story, related in the warm, personal voice of the fireside storyteller, is a funny, tender, and engrossing tale. Bull Canyon is the story of two dreamers and schemers who have taken life by the horns and bring the reader along for the wild and joyous ride.

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04/02/2013, 11:14

"In a foreword to her new book -- Bull Canyon: A Boat Builder, A Writer and other Wildlife - Lin Pardey asks fans of her sailing adventures aboard Seraffyn to hang in with her through this transition book, the story of Lin and husband Larry's four years ashore during construction of a new boat -- Taleisin. Her fans should not be worried. These four years in an out-of-the way canyon in California, immersed in the strange culture of rural iconoclasts, trying to do their own thing, their own way, for as little money as possible, is as much an adventure as any they have had in foreign waters.

And, Lin and Larry, endeavoring to build a new boat from scratch and doing it the hard way - far from boatyards, without even such fundamentals as mail, phone and electricity and in the face of adversities like flood, fire, and packrats - in their own fashion fit right in. A cruiser's openness to the other ways people choose to live, their readiness to band together to help neighbors in need, their gameness to throw together food and music to celebrate, well, just about anything, their focus on getting done what needs to be done, makes them good neighbors in the unusual community of Bull Canyon.

But this is a transition time for Lin and Larry in more ways than one. In addition to stepping up from a smaller boat to a larger one, it is a time set aside for Lin to step up to challenges she has set herself as a writer. Her goal is to actually support them with her craft while Larry exercises his in the boat shed. Lin explores those challenges - the doubts, the thrills, the ego bruises - with great honesty.

It also becomes a time for them both to reflect on things they left behind when they sailed away, decisions they made blithely in the flush of youth and love and eagerness for adventure, conventions they have easily ignored. Those things range from connections to family, children and pets as well as to capital, place, conveniences and things. Land life, even the rugged version the Pardeys have opted for, has its seductions, and, despite good intentions not to get too attached to any of it, they do begin to put down roots.

It's a hardly a spoiler to say they choose sailing again. We know that they do. The process by which they make this transition brings a new maturity to their choice of lifestyle and reaffirms its values. In particular the durability of cruising friendships shines through when we see who sticks around to the end! Lin and Larry's satisfaction in each hard-wrought accomplishment - whether is it devising a means to bring running water to the cottage, producing a beautifully crafted rib for the boat, nurturing a garden from rocky soil, or completing a satisfying book project - reaffirms their commitment to their lifestyle choice and to each other.

It is always bittersweet to leave things behind, but when Taleisin rolls out of the boat shed, we feel along with Lin that frisson of excitement for what lies ahead"

– from Amazon