Amy McCullough is the author of The Box Wine Sailors. She is the former music editor of Willamette Week, Portland, Oregon's Pulitzer Prize-winning alt-weekly newspaper, and has also written for Eugene Weekly and SAIL Magazine. In addition to writing, McCullough makes music and movies with her partner and former shipmate, Jimmie.
The true story of a young couple who quit their jobs and set sail for a year on the ocean with no boating experience
Amy and Jimmie were not sailors and their experience on the seas included reading a few books, watching a couple of instructional videos, and boating once a week each year. They were middle-class land-lubbers, audacious and in love, and all they wanted was to be together and do something extraordinary. The Box Wine Sailors tells the true story of a couple’s ramshackle trip down the coast with all the exulting highs and terrifying lows of sailing a small boat on the Pacific. From sailing on Thanksgiving morning under spectacular bright blue Californian skies just off the Channel Islands as dolphins raced alongside their boat to the terrifying experience of rounding Punta Gorda and hanging on to the mast for dear life. It also tells the story of two very normal people doing what most people only dream of and settling the argument that if you want something bad enough you can make it happen.
