Erik Orton - Seven at Sea: Why a New York City Family Cast Off Convention for a Life-changing Year on a Sailboat

Praise for

SEVEN at SEA

Erik and Emily Orton are extraordinary not only at telling their five children how to live, but showing them. In this fascinating real-life story of spending an incredible year fulfilling a dream to sail 2,500 miles from the Caribbean Islands to New York City in a catamaran, they skillfully show that is it is possible to live big on a shoestring budget while giving their family an astonishing education in adventure, creativity, purpose, and grit. With great intention they embraced risk and some pretty breathtaking adversity, which changed and refined them all in ways that will leave the reader full of admiration and wonder.

Linda and Richard Eyre

#1 New York Times Best-Selling
Authors of Teaching Your Children Values

We dont need more stuff to be happy... we need less. The lessons of love, determination, and dreaming big wait for you in this adventure on the sea. You will find yourself sailing through each page, lost in the beauty of this familys voyage. It gives you the courage to do the same in your own lifes travels.

Chester Elton

New York Times and Wall Street Journal
Best-Selling Author of The Carrot Principle and All In

I LOVED IT! Absolutely loved it. Erik and Emily Orton engagingly narrate the exploits of their family as they disrupt their conventional New York City life for an adventure at sea, unfazed by the challenges of five children, one with special needs. They cant imagine everything that might go wrong, but it will anyway. They wont persuade you to spend a year on a boatat least, they didnt persuade mebut they will seduce you into imagining boldly and envisioning setting sail on an adventure of your own. They will persuade you that unconventional is a synonym for individual and have you contemplating why you would accept an off-the-rack version of your life when you can tailor-make your own. Youll finish Seven at Sea daring to seek a discovery-driven voyage to your dream life, or the dream-of-a-lifetime. A fun, inspiring read.

Whitney Johnson

Best-Selling Author of Disrupt Yourself and Dare, Dream, Do

Were all on a journey. The Ortons storytelling of their particular path guides all readersnot just those who dream of seafaringthrough lessons on living, loving, and life. They share their hurdles with candor and warmth, and just enough discomfort to remind you theyre real: stretching beyond their comfort zone in the joyful and daunting extremes of life on an adventure. The way that Erik and Emily consider, evaluate, and take on challenges they face is instructive for all, and required reading for those who dream of adventuring as a family.

Behan Gifford

Coauthor of Voyaging with KidsA Guide to Family Life , featured on
the Today Show, CNN, Business Insider, and Inside Edition

I love nothing more than seeing someone put his or her mind to something, and then make it happen. Well, thats not entirely trueI love nothing more than seeing a family put their mind to something, and then make it happen. This is a great story of a loving family working together to fulfill dreams that one of them hadand that the others just didnt realize they had yet.

Patrick Schulte

Head Writing Bum at Bumfuzzle.com and
Cofounder of Wanderer Financial

All photos courtesy of the authors except as noted below.

Pages 45: mandritoiu/shutterstock.com; pages 6263: BlueOrange Studio/shutterstock.com; pages 102103: Uladzik Kryhin/shutterstock.com; pages 15657: ju.hrozian/shutterstock.com; pages 25253: pisaphotography/shutterstock.com; photo section: Lisa Torkelson, John Alonso, and Ty LaMont Mecham.

2019 Erik Orton and Emily Orton

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Shadow Mountain, at permissions@shadowmountain.com. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of Shadow Mountain.

Visit us at shadowmountain.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Orton, Erik, 1974 author. | Orton, Emily, 1974 author.

Title: Seven at sea : why a New York City family cast off convention for a life-changing year on a sailboat / Erik and Emily Orton.

Description: Salt Lake City, Utah : Shadow Mountain, [2019]

Identifiers: LCCN 2018047098 | ISBN 9781629725512 (hardbound : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Orton, Erik, 1974Travel. | Orton, Emily, 1974Travel. | SailingCaribbean Area. | SailingAtlantic Coast (U.S.) | Caribbean AreaDescription and travel. | Atlantic Coast (U.S.)Description and travel. | LCGFT: Travel writing.

Classification: LCC GV776.23 .O75 2019 | DDC 797.12409163/65dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018047098

Printed in the United States of America

Lake Book Manufacturing, Inc., Melrose Park, IL

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Cover photos: The Orton Family and ICHIRO/Photodisc/Getty Images

Back/flap photos: The Orton Family Book design: Shadow Mountain

Art direction: Richard Erickson Design: Heather G. Ward

For our crew:

Karina, Alison, Sarah Jane, Eli, and Lily.

You will always be our greatest adventure.

Introduction

Oyster Pond, Saint Martin, Caribbean

20 Days aboard Fezywig

ERIK

I pointed Fezywig out of the channel for the third time in three weeks. Okay, kids, hang on, I called across the deck. Before we arrived at Oyster Pond in Saint Martin, Id had no idea we were picking up our boat from one of the most treacherous coves in the whole Caribbean: a narrow channel weaving through jagged cliffs, submerged reefs, meandering buoys, and direct exposure to waves rolling in across the Atlantic Ocean. Now I knew what was coming, and I was scared spitless.

Emily turned up the music, and all five of our kids started singing Rox in the Box by the Decemberists. Wed been singing this haunting, jaunty song for years as our family had learned to sail. Karina, our oldest at sixteen, dusty blonde and round-faced, stood across the cockpit, her eyes riveted on the channel. Alison, fourteen, with cropped copper hair, looked up the mast to check the wind indicator. Sarah Jane (or SJ or Jane, but never Sarah). twelve and already turning platinum blonde, swung from the canvased bars covering the cockpit. Eli, eight and gangly, was our one boy. Lily, six, with her almond eyes and apple cheeks, was the end of the line. Eli and Lily couldnt swim. Thats why they were tethered with harnesses to jack lines running the length of the boat. Emily steadied herself in the doorframe between the galley and the cockpit. Her smile was confident, but her blue eyes were full of questions. I did my best to smile back.

We sang loudly as the boat pitched and the bow pounded into the oncoming waves. Singing kept our minds busy and nausea at bay. We got through the pin buoys and out into open water. I turned the boat toward the island of Tintamarre, which put us sideways to the waves. Thats when my queasiness returned, but I was determined. Even with only one working engine, we werent spending another night in that hot, stuffy anchorage waiting for a mechanic who might never show up.

Putting up the sails would have moved my nausea to the next step, and it was a short trip, so we motored the few miles to Tintamarre. A bunch of boats were already tied to mooring balls along the main beach. There was one ball free, so we went for it. Karina and Alison were at the bow with the boat hook ready to snag the line. Getting the mooring ball on the first try had become a source of pride for me. Wed practiced it constantly since our earliest family sails. Karina and Alison were our best snaggers. But despite my, ahem, nearly impeccable driving, they missed it. I wasnt a good enough captain yet to stay calm. I had something to prove. With the wind pushing the boat sideways and only one engine, I wasnt about to go around for another pass. I shouted up front, I cant believe you guys! Alison, take the helm! Emily conveyed the second half of the message, and Alison took the wheel. Jane kept Eli and Lily out of the way. She knew the Mad Dad look when she saw it. I jumped down to the stern and grabbed the mooring ball with my bare hands.