The Curve of Time

By M. Wylie Blanchet,

Book cover of The Curve of Time: The Classic Memoir of a Woman and Her Children Who Explored the Coastal Waters of the Pacific Northwest

Book description

After her husband died in 1927, leaving her with five small children, everyone expected the struggles of single motherhood on a remote island to overcome M. Wylie Blanchet. Instead, this courageous woman became one of the pioneers of "family travel," acting as both mother and captain of the twenty-five-foot boat…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Curve of Time as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

As I read M. Wylie Blanchet’s book, I myself was transported through time to one of the most magical and beautiful places in North America—the islands, bays, fjords, and estuaries of British Columbia.

In addition to being right on the water and immersed in the great forests, I was also, like her young children, at school, constantly learning new things about history, culture, ecology, philosophy, and even seamanship! The lively dialogue also made me feel like one of the family, conversing easily as we explored a land that was at that time, very sparsely populated by humanity.

Throughout the book,…

The Curve of Time is a Northwest classic of coastal cruising.

It’s a marvelous book with an almost dreamlike quality by a woman who, left a widow in 1927, packs her five children onto a 25-foot motor launch and explores the complex waters of  British Columbia summer after summer. Blanchet's account of their unstructured days in Desolation Sound reads almost like fiction, but her adventures are all very real. 

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