Deep Water Passage: A Spiritual Journey at Midlife

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The day after her forty-third birthday, Ann Linnea - wife, mother, naturalist, athlete - slipped into her slim, seventeen-foot kayak, pushed off into the raging surf of Lake Superior, and went in search of the rest of her life. The story of Ann's sixty-five-day journey around the planet's largest lake is one of extraordinary physical courage and challenge and even more extraordinary spiritual trial and transformation. Deeply affected by the death of a dear friend and feeling an urgent need to claim her spirituality, she set out on the treacherous waters of Lake Superior on a quest to immerse herself so deeply in wilderness that she could understand what changes she needed to make in the urban life she had created. The summer of 1992 was to prove the harshest in a century. Braving bitter cold, roaring winds, and high seas, Ann paddled alone and in the company of her colleague, Paul, to become the first woman to circumnavigate the great lake. During this arduous 1,200-mile voyage, Ann would face gnawing self-doubt and mortal danger as well as triumphant exhilaration and awe at confronting the natural world.

SYNOPSIS

In the summer of 1992, 43-year-old Ann Linnea slipped into her kayak and rowed 1,200 miles to become the first woman to circumnavigate Lake Superior. An exhilarating story of one woman's strong desire to confront not only the harshness of nature but the realities of her life, Linnea's adventure will have a profound effect on any woman who seeks to reappraise perceptions of herself; her relationships with those she loves; and her understanding of life, death, and spirit.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

The author's grueling, 65-day journey around Lake Superior was emphatically not adventure but a spiritual quest, a search for meaning in her life. For her first 43 years, Linnea had adjusted to her surroundings and accommodated others. With a husband, two children and a comfortable middle-class existence in Duluth, she felt unfulfilled spiritually. So in mid-June 1992, she set out with a friend in seagoing kayaks to paddle the 1200-mile perimeter of Lake Superior. The weather was unseasonably cold and stormy, and the journey proved to be a severe physical challenge. Linnea became discouraged and dangerously exhausted, yet her perseverance enabled her to make a break with the past. This account is both an engrossing adventure and a story of spiritual awakening and inspiration. Linnea is coauthor of Teaching Kids to Love the Earth. Author tour. (Sept.)

Library Journal

Ecofeminist Linnea (Teaching Kids To Love the Earth, Pfeifer-Hamilton, 1991) recounts her 1200-mile, 65-day kayak paddle around Lake Superior. More significant than the numbers and the athletic challenge, though, is her spiritual journey of personal growth. Linnea writes, "All my life, I have sought wild places for adventure, for my livelihood, and for good counsel," and this trip indeed supplied all three. At age 43, she felt at a turning point and undertook this challenge in order to prepare for life's second half. Through high fogs, huge obscuring waves, disorienting fog, bitter cold, and 12-hour paddling days, she emerges at a place where body and mind are united. As well, the physical courage she summons eventually transforms into an emotional courage to take risks. Recommended for public library collections in women's spirituality or the increasingly popular sport of kayaking.-Kathy Ruffle, Coll. of New Caledonia Lib., Prince George, B.C.

Seattle Times

"A fine piece of work....Linnea came to know the difference between going through the motions of life and being truly alive."

Chattanooga Free Press