Seaworthy

April 12, 2010
After a 10-year hiatus from blue-water fishing, Greenlaw (Hungry Ocean
) went cautiously to sea, seeking a payday and perspective on her life. Thanks to The Perfect Storm
phenomenon (both book and film), she was celebrated as America’s only female swordfish boat captain. She was now also a mother and an author who relished a new challenge, traveling 1,000 miles from her Maine home with an eager crew of four guys—three of them experienced sailing buddies—looking for swordfish on the 63-foot, six-and-a-half–knot steel boat Seahawk
on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. It was a 52-day trip—and a sensational misadventure. Nearly everything that could go wrong, did, including her arrest for illegally fishing in Canadian waters. Greenlaw chronicles it all—a busted engine, a malfunctioning ice machine, squirrelly technology—with an absorbing mix of nautical expertise and self-deprecation. After inspecting the Seahawk
, Greenlaw calls it rough, but stable and capable. Then she writes, “Although I was referring to the boat, I couldn’t help thinking the same could be said of her captain.” From mishaps to fish tales, Greenlaw keeps her narrative suspenseful. Between bad luck and self-doubt, she moves from experience to wisdom, guiding both crew and readers on a voyage of self-affirmation.

March 1, 2010
Greenlaw (Fisherman's Bend, 2007, etc.) returns to the Grand Banks in search of swordfish.

Writing bestsellers and pulling lobster traps out of the bay off her island home in Maine couldn't"fill the void left in the absence of true, hardy, saltwater adventure," so when opportunity knocked to skipper a swordfishing longliner to the blue water, Greenlaw jumped. She landed on the Seahawk, a vessel of such rank dilapidation the crew soon rechristened it the Shithawk. The crew also had varying degrees of mechanical problems—kidney stones, a severed thumb—but the author draws them affectionately as a stalwart bunch, who gravitate toward museums and Internet cafes during shore time. It's a pleasure to be out once more on the water with Greenlaw, like hooking up again with a favorite fishing guide. Readers may have heard a few of the stories before, but the author is such an unvarnished old hand, they're fun even in the retelling. Who can tire of sharks gnashing and thrashing around on a confined deck, or the rhythmic beauty of laying out 30 miles of line baited with 800 hooks, or heavy weather on a small boat in the big blue? The dialogue can be wooden at times, and there is a certain ripeness to some of the passages—"the diving night splashed light onto the opposite horizon, which swam like spawning salmon up the riverlike sky"—but Greenlaw speaks with unquestionable authority when fashioning the salty atmosphere of swordfishing life.

A vanishing slice of life caught with ardor and freshness.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 15, 2010
Fans of The Perfect Stormbook or moviemight remember Greenlaw as the captain of the Hannah Boden, sister ship to the ill-fated Andrea Gale (in the movie she was played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). After the tragic events chronicled in Sebastian Jungers best-seller, Greenlaw went into a kind of semiretirement, trading swordfishing for the slightly less risky lobster fishing. (She also wrote three popular books, including The Hungry Ocean, 1999.) Now, 10 years later, facing high debts and low income from her lobster traps, Greenlaw signs on for a season of swordfishing. She was expecting challenges, but she wasnt expecting a dilapidated boat, a steep relearning curve, and a stint in a Canadian jail. This account of her return to the swordfish business tells a compelling story of the fishing life. Greenlaw is frank about her mental and physical limitations, but she finds inspiration in her rediscovery of her love of adventure. Readers of her previous books will snap this one up.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)