About Sailing South ’til the Butter Melts by LeCain W. Smith:
It’s always important for all of us to create the opportunity for more joy by finding a friendly companion in good story books that stimulate your imagination and entertain you with humor and excitement. This is especially true for children, for their growth, courage, and wisdom is critical to the future of the world. When thinking globally there is much to gain from learning about the world around us. When a heart-warming adventure story brings the world closer, it is possible to find insights that will be useful throughout our lives. When the story is told by a sea cat named Chowder, who cruised around the world on a sailboat, the level of entertainment can increase dramatically.
Most cats don’t dream about sailing around the world. Neither did Chowder. But in the 1990’s, she somewhat reluctantly joined her caregivers, Captain Lee and mate Sheila, on a voyage that lasted six years, covering over 45,000 miles while visiting foreign lands and remote paradise islands.
As an educational series of unique adventure stories full of excitement, unexpected dangers, amazing encounters, and joyful moments all based on true events, The Amazing Adventures of the Sea Cat Chowder offers plenty of entertainment, as the sea cat Chowder provides her own viewpoint of all her experiences during a global voyage. Although this series of illustrated chapter books is intended for middle-grade and young adults, they are certainly suitable for sailors and any adult with the heart of a child.
In this first book, Chowder reveals how she left her home on land and got her sea legs onboard a sailboat that Lee had built. While they sail down the west coast of the Americas to the enchanted islands of the Galapagos, she shares how she handles each experience and adapts to a variety of situations. Her apprehension turns into a sense of curiosity and wonder as she is transformed into a global sea cat by the challenges of rolling seas, lightning, storms, sharks, and wild jungle animals. Yet, she also purrs about the pleasure of eating fresh fish, playing with birds, listening to singing parrots, and watching dancing dolphins. She loves to give the readers the inside scoop on life aboard a cruising yacht.
Buy the book:
Author Bio:
The author, LeCain W. Smith, known to his friends as Captain Lee, was born near the ocean on the southern coast of Maine and was called to the sea early in life. Over the years different sailboats took him on many nautical adventures, and on most every voyage, he had a cat as a companion. Over time, his skills came to include teaching sailing and navigation, boatbuilding, boat deliveries, yacht surveying, acting as a harbormaster, and as a licensed captain chartering boats at various locations in the USA. In addition, he wrote several nonfiction books with nautical, historical, and health-related themes. Over the years his publications include Steel Away, The Maritime History of Brooksville, and Our Inner Ocean.
While living in Port Townsend, Washington, during the 1980’s he spent five years building a forty-three-foot ketch and then completed a six-year voyage around the world. In company with his mate Sheila and trusted sea cat Chowder, this extensive exploration took them through many remote islands of paradise and exotic parts of the world.
When it was over, Chowder felt that all their adventures were definitely worth sharing. Since LeCain had produced Far Away, a documentary video about the South Pacific part of their voyage, Chowder decided to tell her own version of the complete story with a trilogy of books, that include Sailing South ‘til the Butter Melts, Far Away Islands of Paradise, and Westward Beyond the Horizon (all the books released between 2021 and 2022). Each book covers about two years of the voyage.