BACK UNDER SAIL: Recovering the Spirit of Adventure

Three years after Scherer was raped at knifepoint in a Seattle laundromat, she resolved to overcome lingering fears and tensions with her husband by participating in a 200-mile sailing race out of Juneau, Alaska. Scherer wasn't a stranger to the high seas. After learning the technical terms of sailing from an illustrated children's book, she helped her husband build a sailboat from scratch and then lived on it for four years. But racing and living with the four unfamiliar men who are her fellow crew members in extremely tight quarters was a new experience for Scherer, and her memoir spells out the epiphanies and pitfalls in great detail. The most memorable parts of her tale explore the dynamics of the group and often lead to flashbacks about other mishaps and adventures in the author's sailing career. Her descriptions of the team's surroundings can be nothing short of luminous—the oars of a rowboat "dripping liquid silver"; a pair of whales dancing rhythmically at the side of the boat—but Scherer's accounts of steering, keeping watch and following the sometimes-cryptic directions of fellow crew members may leave outsiders feeling lost at sea. As a story of hope and survival, though, hers is universal. She writes, "You use the wind to go forward, even when it's against you.... Pay attention, study the charts and currents, watch the weather. Reduce sail, seek shelter, make repairs—every crew has its limits. But keep going forward." Even a landlubber can't argue with this wisdom. Agent, Elizabeth Wales. (Oct.)

Forecast: Scherer's first book, Still Loved by the Sun: A Rape Survivor's Journal, received a Pacific Northwestern Booksellers Association Award and a PEN/Albrand Citation. A regional favorite, the author could reach a wider audience with her tour, which will take her to Chicago; Minneapolis; New York; Washington, D.C.; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Albuquerque, N.Mex., in addition to West Coast cities.