“Every minute you spend wishing you did something is a minute you spend not doing it.” ~Chris DiCroce, You Gotta Go To Know
Hey y’all – Melody here. I meant to get this post up earlier in the week, but it’s been quite a whirlwind around here!
Long story short, we’ve been down in South Florida for a couple of months now, and because Chris works freelance, he often has stretches of time where he doesn’t have “work” – which is funny to say because he’s always working on something – the boat, his music, etc. In fact, he’s hardly ever not working.
If there’s anything that needs to be done (which, as you know on a boat, that’s always), he has a hard time allowing himself to relax, so I’ve been trying to encourage him to get away from the boat and boat projects, and just go to the library and write… a blog post, perhaps a song.
After many long days at the library, he comes back one evening and tells me he wrote… a book? Yep. A book.
What has happened since it went live 4 days ago has been amazing – in just 2 short days, it became an Amazon bestseller in the sailing category. We have been overwhelmed with gratitude for all of the people who downloaded it, and for the awesome reviews that readers have taken the time to leave on Amazon.
I know I’m biased, but I think Chris has a way of weaving words into something more than just a story, and I love seeing that I’m not the only one who thinks that.
The book is available on Amazon. Don’t have a Kindle? You can download the FREE Kindle Reader for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, etc.
Thank you again for the downloads, reviews and the kind comments on Facebook. Y’all are awesome.
Chris
HIYC Commodore Brandon recommended your too-short book so I read it and liked it very much,
Those of us “who hear the crash of the league-long roller on the distant shore of a sea on which we dream to sail” can read your book and often say “that happened to me!”
You may not remember me as Treasurer of HIYC, but we have a J/32 for racing at HIYC and a 58-year-old 42-foot wooden ocean racing sloop (in pristine shape although with cutting edge 1956 technology) named “Comanche” at Biscayne Bay YC in Miami. She won a lot of SORC races before being sold to Anne’s father.
We have cruised her many times to the Bahamas and as far as Georgetown in the Exumas, plus cruises in Chesapeake Bay and around into the Gulf of Mexico. We have made the night crossing of the Gulf Stream with what NOAA called “very short 15-ft waves” that incapacitated with sea sickness everyone on the boat but my wife, Anne, who virtually single-handed Comanche in the darkness from Miami to Bimini. She grew up in Miami and has been sailing since childhood. She is Skipper of our racing sloop at HIYC.
Three years ago Anne broke both bones in her leg when hot-rodding the dinghy and I had to call for a night time rescue by the Coast Guard and have her taken off Comanche at Key Largo and transported to a hospital in Miami. Five years earlier, I had to radio and persuade the Coast Guard to send a small jet plane to Chubb Key in the Berry Islands to pick up a crew member who was having a PWP heart attack and whose life depended on getting to a Miami hospital for open heart surgery. But now, we are 77 years old now, and a little less active. But we enjoy your adventures.
The purpose of this letter is to encourage you to write some more… You have the correct “voice” and a literary cruising couple has many opportunities to get involved in some fictional adventures involving the Bermuda Triangle, Cuban plotters, smugglers, and bad guys.
I like your interior discussions of your characters’ thoughts and motivations, but hope your next book will give us a little more on environmental descriptions of what it looked like and felt like to be there. A sunset…a sunrise…riding out a serious storm at anchor…the psychological stress of avoiding the running lights of a fast-moving freighter in the Gulf Stream at night.
What is your email address? Do you still get our HIYC mailings at Box 281495?
I salute you for living the dream many of us share…and I hope you will come back to HIYC to tell us in person of your experiences, But most of all, I hope you will let me know when your next book is published.
Hello Fred! Of course I remember you and Anne very well. I was a regular on Mike Birk’s Crew and miss those club races very much. We saw the stern of you boat many, many times. I appreciate very much Commodore Brandon mentioning my book as, HIYC was the single, most important factor in my re-discovering sailing and getting to where we are now. So many of the amazing people we met there I still email with regularly. I didn’t know you still had a wooden sloop in Miami! She sounds beautiful and I’d love to see her someday. You and Anne have had quite the sailing adventure yourselves and we hope to jump off to the Bahamas, Grenada and possibly Panama in the not to distant future. I do get the mailers but not to that address any longer. I will send you a private email with our current mailing information and contact info. We hope to be back to Nashville this summer for a visit and will absolutely be stopping by the club to say hi to everyone. Thanks again Fred for reading my book and for taking the time out of your schedule to post a comment. Please give everyone at the club our best. Melody and I talk often of our HIYC home and we still fly the burgee… Actually, we presented our tattered burgee to the amazing folks at Seaford Yacht Club on the Chesapeake Bay after a particularly nasty passage. They provided safe harbor for us for three long days while we waited out weather. They invited us to their gatherings and drove us to the market. I felt it very appropriate to give them our colors. They promptly put it on the their wall. They gave me their burgee which I sent to Joe Ballard and he was going to present it to Commodore Brandon. I hope someone takes a photo and sends it to me so I may forward it to them. Thanks again Fred. My best to Anne.
Sincerely,
the Crew s/v VACILANDO
Hi Chris & Mel, Rick Smith Here.
Just finished your book and LOVE it, LOVE you guys and can’t wait to sail into a harbor soon to find you (all three) there.
To everyone reading this who haven’t read “You Gotta Go To Know”, Do it now. If you’re a sailor, adventurer, lover of life, or wanderlust, there are great stories of all these things… and if non of these, the last chapter is worth the book and made my heart LEAP!
thanks Chris, Mel & Jet… can’t wait to read more.
Melanie, I’d love to hear your side of this, hint, hint:)
Your friends,
Rick & Kathleen, s/v II True
Thank you Rick. I could have gone into ten more chapters about my time at HIYC. Many folks that didn’t get a mention like JB Copeland, Roger Maxwell, The Marshall’s, Caldwell’s and that damn Joe Ballard. Mike Birk and Peter, Ted Chapin who lent me that trailer to fix up my old San Juan. Randal and all the boys of the EOM… the list is endless. I wish I could have fit it all in but you got the gist of the book. It’s not about sailing. It’s about life. It’s about making time count and thank you for getting all of that. We’ll be sailing around some where and Melody, Jet and I will keep our eyes peeled for II True. Thanks again Rick. Our best to everyone at the club. Thank you for the support. It means a lot.
Chris
Chris, I Loved reading your book, but than, I always Love reading your blogs. Dont ever stop writing your music and recording it and I cant wait to read the ” NEXT” chapter of your journey. Between you and Mel, there is SO much talent that I cant wait to see whats next. I Love you both!!! Aunt D
Thanks so much Darla. You are always so kind with your words. Every day we just try to create a little happiness and keep the dream going. It’s always different and always presents new challenges. We love it. I will keep “documenting” my take on it as long as folks enjoy reading. The music is coming. It’s been hard getting it all recorded on the boat. I got off to a great start but now I’m looking for a small room to create a studio in. I need to be able to work for hours at a time without disturbing life on the boat or Melody. We’ll see. Thanks again.
c
Congratulations! Another author is born. I will buy, read and enjoy your book.
Thank you so much!! Let us know what you think!
Just fnished your book! Loved it! I am always looking for boating adventure and stories of people reinventing themselves. This is definitely something I look forward to when this chapter of my life is over. Until then, I’ll just have to be happy living vicariously through the adventures of others. Thanks for sharing your story.
Thanks for reading, Peggy – and for your kind words! Good luck in your next chapter! :)
Chris,
…loved the book. It re-inspired us just as we were having some doubts. Found our way to your website. My lovely wife and I are about 10 years ahead of you guys in age and about a year behind in dream. I quit my job last Sept. and am now finishing up the house to sell. Also, like you…we have our beloved Catalina 30 “Sonrisa” (no kidding) on the market. We’ve spent the last 7 years sailing her all over Puget Sound and the San Juans. Were finally getting close to a short-list of applicable boats for us to spend a few years in the Sea of Cortez and the west coast of Mexico. I like how both of you contribute to the blog. Keep posting…as for now we are living vicariously thru your posts. Cheers.
Steve~ Thanks so much for reading along. Keep going on your plan to live your dream. I envy you for getting to the Sea of Cortez. I would love to cruise there someday. I appreciate very much your comments on the book! I’m glad it fired up your desire to get going. Please stay in touch and let us know what boat you end up on! As you know, we always keep looking at boats… I keep browsing all the sites looking and dreaming as well. For now, our CAL is just fine. We update her regularly and before you know it, all the systems will be new… then, we’ll sell her… isn’t that what happens. You get your boat just the way you like it and sell it. Anyway… thanks again and fair winds!
Chris
So when’s the next eBook coming out? I’d pay again to read more about your cruise .
Hi John! Thanks so much for reading “You Gotta Go”. We really appreciate the support. I hope you enjoyed it. As for the next one? I’m not sure. We’ve been hold up trying to work and get the boat sold. I don’t really have much to talk about that I would consider “book” worthy right now. As we arrive in Lauderdale, we’ve got our nose to the grind stone trying to work as much as possible. We’ve got dear friends scattered all over the Eastern Caribbean and we’d love to join them but it might be another year before we can. But… please stay in touch and drop a line once in a while. Let us know what you’re doing and where you’re sailing.