Aweigh of Life

About the Book

Aweigh of Life is a memoir and travel tale of one woman’s unique adventures of sailing and living in the South Pacific during the 1970s. Interlaced with her adventurous tales, she explores the emotional scars from her dysfunctional upbringing as she morphed from seeking the adventure to seeking simplicity and then being called into motherhood. With an honest insight, she examines the choices she made during the seven years during which she experienced the beauty and generosity of the less-developed island peoples of Oceania, riding out gales and hurricanes, going bush in New Zealand, building a thatched hut and doing subsistence farming, and, eventually, returning to sailing, ending up delivering her first child on a remote island of grass-skirted, betel nut–chewing natives in Papua New Guinea.

About the Author

After returning from the South Pacific, the author worked for forty years transcribing court trials in her home while raising her four children as a single mom, honing her English skills while being a voyeur into many walks of life. Presently, she lives alone in Humboldt County, California, continuing to embrace the simple minimalist lifestyle that she sought while sailing. Recognizing “if not now, when?” and at the urging of friends and strangers to write, she has finally put to paper the tales and insights of those uniquely adventurous years. This is her first book. Kasidi Conto is a pen name.