The Curve of Time

By M. Wylie Blanchet

Book Overview

A beloved and bestselling Pacific Northwest sailing adventure classic, now available in paperback from Harbour Publishing

Widowed at the age of thirty-five, Muriel Wylie Blanchet packed up her five children in the summers that followed and set sail aboard the twenty-five-foot Caprice. For fifteen summers, in the 1920s and 1930s, the family explored the coves and islands of the West Coast, encountering settlers and hermits, hungry bears and dangerous tides, and falling under the spell of the region's natural beauty.

Driven by curiosity, the family followed the quiet coastline, and Blanchet--known as Capi, after her boat--recorded their wonder as they threaded their way between the snowfields, slept under the bright stars and wandered through Indigenous winter villages left empty in the summer months.

The Curve of Time weaves the story of these years into a memoir that has inspired generations to seek out their own adventures on the wild West Coast. First published in 1961, less than a year before the author died, Blanchet's captivating work has become a bestselling classic of travel writing.

Now available from Harbour Publishing, this new edition contains maps of the Pacific Northwest coast showing the journeys of the Caprice as well as an essay on the life and biography of Blanchet by celebrated writer Edith Iglauer.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1990776787
• ISBN13: 9781990776786
• Release Date: November 2024
• Publisher: Harbour Publishing
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

One womans courageous life

This story was expecially fun for me to read because this woman lived in a time and near a place of my own grandmother. She took hold of her life after the death of her husband and shared wonderful adventures with her children each summer in the waters and byways of the Canadian BC inland waterways. She did this in an era where her family said she should sell everything and "move home where it was safer" A real joy to read. Carol Hage Wall, Oak Harbor, WashingtonThe Curve of Time: The Classic Memoir of a Woman and Her Children Who Explored the Coastal Waters of the Pacific Northwest (Adventura Books)

Excellent.

A amazing woman. As good as any cruising book written. And a shame that this woman wrote only one book. A very good picture of cruising, the Pacific NorthWest and, a simpler time.

The Curve of Time

What a great read. Ms. Blanchett takes you through the doors of time and travels back to the Northern, West coast of British Columbia. Visit what life and nature was like years ago. She draws memories of a growing family and their adventures that remain in your mind long after the book is done and has been put back on the shelf. On quiet days while out on the water one can't help but feel the Caprice with Wylie at the wheel shadow past you, exploring yet another part of the water world around her. Read and DREAM ON.