World Voyagers (IPPY and Indie Book Awards Winner) The True Story of a Veterinarian a Renaissance Man and Stewart the Cat (English) - Hardcover

After achieving her lifelong goal of becoming a veterinarian, an artist, and living on a working saltwater farm on the coast of Maine, Dr. Amy P. Wood needed to satisfy a desire to see, hear and taste what lay over the horizon. During her three-year span on Iwalani, she learned first-hand about animals and their native environment, different cultures, and the impact we people are having on wildlife habitat. Coming from an old Boston family of the bean and the cod variety, Wood has eloquently captured their experiences with both brush and pen. Philip J. Shelton grew up on Long Island, New York where he apprenticed to his boat-building grandfather Stanley Grodeski. In 1975, he left the crowds and bought a 30-acre woodlot in Washington County, Maine and built a log cabin miles from civilization. In 1980, he designed and built the 90-foot schooner Janet May , now sailing as the school ship Quninnipiack in New Haven, Connecticut. From 1985-94, he taught wooden boat building at the Maine Maritime Museum. In 1996, he designed and built the world's largest rotating globe for DeLorme Mapping. In April 2000 he was finally able to realize his childhood dream of long distance sailing. His inspiration for a circumnavigation came from lifelong friend and mentor Dennis Puleston, co-founder of the Environmental Defense Fund and early member of the Cruising Club of America. Shelton and Wood have written articles for numerous periodicals, including, Ocean Navigator, Downeast Magazine and Wooden Boat.

In the late 1990s an old red Yankee-class iceboat occasionally appeared on Maine lakes. Sailed by a bearded man and a blonde woman, it went much faster than it should have, considering its aged sail. Then, for several seasons, it was missed, to reappear a couple of winters later. Come to find out that in those intervening years its co-pilots, professional shipwright Phil Shelton and his wife, veterinarian Amy Wood, had finished building the 42' Buehler-designed ketch IWALANI and sailed her around the world. They then wrote (in Amy's voice) and published a 430-page book about it all. This three-against-the-sea saga (there was also a ship's cat) differs from others of its ilk in that the authors set out to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. World Voyagers is a must-read for anyone who dreams of sailing around the world, and also for anyone feeling guilty for not dreaming about sailing around the world. And for the rest of us, it is a witty travelogue with attitude-but doesn't ape the Paul Thoreaux/Jonathan Raban smarty-pants school of travel writing. It is surely quirky, and with travel books, quirky is good. --W.H. Bunting WOODENBOAT REVIEW Sept/Oct 2007

Armchair sailors love to read about other people's round-the-world sailing voyages. If they had to do it themselves, however, they would find such a journey to be a grueling test of patience, endurance, and self-reliance. Even experienced blue water sailors find a global circumnavigation to be a daunting challenge. "World Voyagers" is the marvelous true story of the round-the-world sailing voyage of Georgetown, Maine residents Amy Wood and Phil Shelton, told with humor, excitement, and unvarnished honesty. Amy and Phil. are married and had long dreamed of a sailing circumnavigation. They took 10 years to build their own boat, a sturdy, wooden-hulled, 42-foot, gaff rigged cutter named Iwalani, The Wood-Shelton voyage began in Maine in 2000, and took three long years, finally ending back ill Maine in 2003. Amy and Phil sacrificed a great deal to live their dream, perhaps even believing a bit of the romanticized notions of the pleasures of such a trip. They quickly realized that a sailing circumnavigation is a lot of hard work, and an uneven mix of boredom, fatigue, frayed nerves, short tempers, unexpected calamity, and unmatched peace and beauty. This book then is a chronicle of their sailing adventures, as well as an eye-opening travelogue, and an honest, sometimes embarrassing appraisal of their own personal strengths and weaknesses. --BY WILLIAM D. BUSHNELL The Associated Press NOVEMBER 9,2007

Author Amy P. Wood stated that she wanted to write a book that told the true story -- not one with fluff and she indeed accomplishes this feat with World Voyagers, an all encompassing detailed account of a three year circumnavigation aboard Iwalani. Although this book is lengthy, it reads like a daily log or blog, (which is where Amy and Phil originally posted the details of their trip online), and it allows the reader to ultimately become part of the crew, sailing right along with Phil, Amy and Stewart. It s easy to forget you re just reading about being places like the Bahamas, Jamaica, Panama, Marquesas, Australia and South Africa (Just to name a few) as Amy unequivocally takes you there. She shares all the joys, pitfalls, sights, smells, experiences and enough of herself with us to make us feel like we really are encountering the adventure firsthand. You ll feel the seasickness she hides from her husband Phil, find yourself waking up every four hours to do your watch, and even crying along with them when they loose their beloved pet at sea. But you ll also feel the warm sun on your skin as you sail naked in the tropics, see waters in multiple amazing shades of blue, meet interesting people from all corners of the world and get up close and personal with lions and many other furred, feathered and finned wildlife. Then, once in home port again, you ll feel a true sense of accomplishment. --Susan Lynn Kingsbury Good Ol Boat Sept 2007