Charting the Unknown

Charting the Unknown: Family, Fear, And One Long Boat Ride, published by Behler Publications, is now released!  You can purchase it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca  or head down to your local Barnes and Noble.

Kim Petersen’s life was going along exactly as she planned and why shouldn’t it?  She was healthy, invincible, and at nearly twenty, knew the answers to life’s big spiritual questions. To top it off, she was dating a terrific guy who embodied the kind of adventurer she read about in books. Sitting in the university cafeteria, this couple was inspired to write down the top ten things they hoped to accomplish before they died. The resulting bucket-list of aspirations including, “live on a boat and cross an ocean,” was sworn upon and then forgotten. Petersen married with the assumption that life would bend itself to her will, but losing their daughter to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome ushered her into an unforeseen reality. The ensuing grief, crisis of faith, fear of the future, and the creeping busyness of years provided a convenient excuse to retreat into a comfortable passage of days. It was not until she was in her late thirties that she happened upon her old bucket-list, and the agenda from long ago reawakened the desire to dream again.

Realizing that fear was keeping her from accomplishing her goals, Petersen decides to confront it head-on. Intent on crossing one thing off her list, “live on a boat and cross an ocean,” she holds a giant garage sale to sell the family’s possessions. With finesse and humor, Petersen describes packing what little remained into a 5 X 8 U-Haul and moving across the country with her husband and teenager daughter and son in order to begin construction of a 65 foot catamaran yacht they named Chrysalis.  With no prior boating experience, they moved aboard, untied the lines, and began cruising the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada. Eventually, she faced her biggest fear by crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Floating in the middle of 2,000 miles of open water, Petersen finds that living out the questions can offer unique rewards.

Charting the Unknown: Family, Fear, And One Long Boat Ride, is the story of one woman’s attempt to make peace with the unexpected in life.  A tale of hope and triumph that will leave you cheering for the whole family.