Sailing Elsewhere
an Ocean Adventure by Matt Johnston

Available on Amazon.com in Paperback and Kindle format.

This is not a "disaster at sea" story nor a survival tale. It is the record of nine and a half wonderful years spent cruising in the Pacific. We started in San Francisco with family aboard but after Cabo San Lucas it was just my wife Judy and I.


We picked our way along the Pacific Coast, through the "Forgotten Middle" of Central America, and all the way to Ecuador and then across to the Galapagos, the Marquesas, and on through French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, both Samoas, Tonga, and finally north to the Marshall Islands. I include accounts of our inland trips through the Ecuadorian Highlands, the Amazon Basin, Peru, and the Galapagos Islands.


I'll show you what cruising in a small yacht is all about - the glory of it all and the nitty-gritty of everyday life afloat. At times we visited some very unusual places and I will share it all with you. We were not on the tourist route. There are no hotels in Penrhyn or Niuatoputapu for instance.


I wrote this book as we sailed along and much of it is in the form of my logs from that timeframe. I would send these logs by email to friends and family back home so they know the story well. I lost most of my journals and mementos when we lost the boat. This book is only possible because my daughter, Tracy, faithfully saved my correspondence all those year. My hope is that you will enjoy this book whether you are an "Armchair Sailor", someone who might just sail away eventually, or someone who wants to hear about strange out-of-the-way places. Places such as the Galapagos Islands are frequently written about but I think you will find that it is a very different place when seen from the prospective of a Cruising Boat.