Lin Pardey

Bull Canyon is the story of Lin Pardey and her husband Larry. Both are well known for their sailing adventures. In 1980, after sailing for 11 years, they decide to come to California to find a spot for Larry to build a boat and for Lin to work as a writer. What follows in this book is the tale of nearly four years in Bull Canyon, an area sixty miles from the sea. The house is a fixer upper with no electricity or phone lines, and the neighbors are all quirky characters.
They battle show more rat...moreBull Canyon is the story of Lin Pardey and her husband Larry. Both are well known for their sailing adventures. In 1980, after sailing for 11 years, they decide to come to California to find a spot for Larry to build a boat and for Lin to work as a writer. What follows in this book is the tale of nearly four years in Bull Canyon, an area sixty miles from the sea. The house is a fixer upper with no electricity or phone lines, and the neighbors are all quirky characters.
They battle rats, bugs, frogs, fire, floods, and earthquakes, yet despite all this, they fall in love with Bull Canyon and the simple, unspoiled life it offers to them. There are many black and white photos throughout the book of their time in California. I was in awe of the boat that was built in this remote canyon.
I loved this book! Each chapter reads like a travel memoir. Lin and Larry have chosen a non-traditional lifestyle that was fascinating to read about. I loved picking up this book and traveling back thirty years in time to hear about this couple's adventures and trials while trying to adjust to a life back on land. Lin's writing style was easy to read and pretty much grabbed me from the first few pages. I was sad when the story came to an end. I had a wonderful glimpse into their lives for the many years they worked and lived in Bull Canyon. Whether one has been sailing or not, does not matter, this story is an amazing book that would be a recommended read to anyone who has dreamed of doing something different or reading about it. show less

Bull Canyon by Lin Pardey was a terrific read....This is a true story, yet it reads like the best of fiction. I learned a little about boat building, life in a secluded canyon without the amenities I take for granted, and what it meant to this couple to have the freedom to set sail to any destination of their choosing. What I enjoyed most about this story was the sense of adventure, bravery and optimism it portrayed...

Visit Visit Cookie's Book Club to read more of my review as well as an show more interview with the author Lin Pardey. show less

After sailing around the world for nearly a decade, Lin and Larry Pardey decided to return to California and build a new, bigger boat to call home. Seeking a quiet and inexpensive place to stay for the several years during which they will build their boat, they take an offer to stay in a stone cottage in the middle of Bull Canyon, a small community in Central California....far from the water and their friends in the sailing community along the coast, without electricity or phone lines. show more During their time in Bull Canyon, they not only face such challenges as California wildfires, and floods, but also the challenges of fitting into the local community, renewing relationships with landbound family and friends, the need to adapt their relationship to the very different rhythms of life in the canyon, and the struggle of reconciling their relationships with the community of neighbors in the canyon with their eventual goal of returning to their life at sea. Their passion - and compassion - is evident throughout the book, and reading her account of their time in Bull Canyon is as enjoyable as the stories of a friend's adventures, shared with good humor and an intimate tone. It was a pleasure to accompany them on their voyage. show less

A more unlikely place for two life-long blue water sailors to build a boat would have been pretty hard to find!

I thoroughly enjoyed Lin Pardey's memoir of how she and her husband Larry Pardey made their home and built their wooden yacht Taleisin up a dirt road in a remote canyon north east of Lake Elsinore in Southern California. The efforts of the two leave their mark on the canyon, its residents, and the reader in a myriad of ways.

Lin's account is well-remembered. She both respects and show more is perplexed by her new neighbors, people who have been living off the grid and away from city life. Many of their challenges become her own as she weathers through the canyon's flooding, fires, intense summer heat, and pressure to develop.

All the while she is examining her own life as a daughter, wife, writer and adventurer. She shares her thoughts about her goals, her relationships and her work in such a way that the reader comes to know her way of living, to appreciate it, maybe even to envy it.

It is not the life you might expect. Lin notices and describes the tensions of reconciling her own individuality, marital role and self-reliance with the feminism of the times. She examines the trade offs of her adventurous life, alternative career, and social nature with her need to be ashore, take time alone, and be productive. Lin shares hard won lessons here that will reward any reader -male or female, married or single, landlubber or devoted ocean-goer.

To bastardize Lance Armstrong "It's not about the boat!" but with Lin's help, Larry sure does build a hell of a boat up in that canyon.

Taleisin will eventually take the pair through the oceans of the world for she has now voyaged– 65,000 miles: sailing westward from California through Pacific, followed by two voyages from New Zealand to Australia and return. Then through Cook Straits of New Zealand to Sydney, south to Tasmania, westward through Australian bight to Indian Ocean, South Africa, Brazil, Ireland, England, Scotland and Norway. East coast of US, then south to Argentina and westward around Cape Horn to Chile.

My favorite quote about the Pardeys?
"They have built and sailed my uncle
Lyle's boats all over the world . . .
I own all their books and you should too!"
Michael J. Hess 2008

Lucky for us, Lin and Larry have written many books about their lifetime of voyaging and on the Pardey's website http://www.landlpardey.com/ they post regularly with both a travelogue and practical tips for sailors.

Note: I received a copy of this book for free through Goodreads' First Reads Giveaways.

I also pre-ordered a copy from Paracay, the publisher too because as soon as I saw this title on goodreads I knew I had to read it as soon as it came out -whether I won a copy or not! show less