Local group chooses Captain Solitude: One Surfer’s Search for the World’s Greatest Sailor
The popular L.P. Fisher Library fundraiser Woodstock Reads will feature a Nova Scotia author.
The event, which will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. at the Woodstock Community Y, will feature a reading and light refreshments.
Nova Scotia author R.C. Shaw will discuss his latest book, Captain Solitude: One Surfer’s Search for the World’s Greatest Sailor,” published by Goose Lane Editions.
Shaw said the book tries to solve an age-old mystery.
“At the centre of the book is a search that I’m undertaking to figure out what happened to a famous sailor – Joshua Slocum,” he said.
Shaw’s research discovered that Slocum, who was born and raised in Nova Scotia, was the first person to sail around the world alone. He accomplished this feat from 1895 through 1898. The sailor died under mysterious circumstances in 1909. Shaw says that to this day, no one has been able to uncover what happened to him.
Shaw wanted to solve the mystery, but he realized he’d need to step outside the “regular psychic box and find a way to reconnect to his spirit.”
Shaw said he traced Slocum’s steps, visiting haunts where he lived and travelled while surfing and cycling along his travels.
To prepare for his journey, Shaw spent two-and-a-half years reading books about sailing Nova Scotia’s south shore and books by south shore authors to get himself “in the place ” and took a year’s sabbatical from teaching.
His adventure began in September 2021. By Christmas, he had completed the first draft. In his effort to stay in Slocum’s psyche, Shaw said he wrote his first draft longhand because that was what Slocum, who had also published his own book, did.
“I am honored to be selected for Woodstock Reads. [It is] a highlight for me,” said Shaw.
Tickets for the event are $20 and can be purchased at the L.P. Fisher Library. Copies of Shaw’s book will also be available for sale at the event.
