Most cats don’t dream about sailing around the world. Neither did Chowder. But in the 1990’s, she somewhat reluctantly joined her caregivers, Captain Lee and mate Sheila, on a voyage that lasted six years, covering over 45,000 miles while visiting foreign lands and remote paradise islands.

As an educational series of unique adventure stories full of excitement, unexpected dangers, amazing encounters, and joyful moments all based on true events, The Amazing Adventures of the Sea Cat Chowder offers plenty of entertainment, as the sea cat Chowder provides her own viewpoint of all her experiences during a global voyage. Although this series of illustrated chapter books is intended for middle-grade and young adults, they are certainly suitable for sailors and any adult with the heart of a child.

The author, LeCain W. Smith, known to his friends as Captain Lee, was born near the ocean on the southern coast of Maine and was called to the sea early in life. Over the years different sailboats took him on many nautical adventures, and on most every voyage, he had a cat as a companion. Over time, his skills came to include teaching sailing and navigation, boatbuilding, boat deliveries, yacht surveying, acting as a harbormaster, and as a licensed captain chartering boats at various locations in the USA. In addition, he wrote several nonfiction books with nautical, historical, and health-related themes. Over the years his publications include Steel Away, The Maritime History of Brooksville, and Our Inner Ocean.

While living in Port Townsend, Washington, during the 1980’s he spent five years building a forty-three-foot ketch and then completed a six-year voyage around the world. In company with his mate Sheila and trusted sea cat Chowder, this extensive exploration took them through many remote islands of paradise and exotic parts of the world.

When it was over, Chowder felt that all their adventures were definitely worth sharing. Since LeCain had produced Far Away, a documentary video about the South Pacific part of their voyage, Chowder decided to tell her own version of the complete story with a trilogy of books, that include Sailing South ‘til the Butter Melts, Far Away Islands of Paradise, andWestward Beyond the Horizon (this last one being released in May 2022). Each book covers about two years of the voyage.

In the first book, Chowder reveals how she left her home on land and got her sea legs onboard a sailboat that Lee had built. While they sail down the west coast of the Americas to the enchanted islands of the Galapagos, she shares how she handles each experience and adapts to a variety of situations. Her apprehension turns into a sense of curiosity and wonder as she is transformed into a global sea cat by the challenges of rolling seas, lightning, storms, sharks, and wild jungle animals. Yet, she also purrs about the pleasure of eating fresh fish, playing with birds, listening to singing parrots, and watching dancing dolphins. She loves to give the readers the inside scoop on life aboard a cruising yacht.

In the second book, Chowder finds herself venturing out on long ocean crossings through the South Pacific. With these crossings sometimes lasting over two weeks between landfalls at remote tropical islands, like the enchanted Easter Island, Chowder learns what it’s really like to be an able-bodied ocean sailing sea cat.

In this section of her global voyage Chowder shares how she and the crew handled amazing experiences on land and at sea, while cruising with the trade winds through the South Pacific to New Zealand, through the volcanic islands of Melanesia, across the equator to Micronesia in the North Pacific Ocean, and back south through the Solomon and Coral Sea to Australia. Besides having a great time eating fresh fish, playing with birds, being surrounded by dolphins, finding wonderful scenery and wildlife, and watching local inhabitants practicing ancient ceremonies, Chowder had to endure challenging situations involving invasive insects, volcanic eruptions, cyclones, and swimming in sea water. Plenty of amazing adventures to purr about!

At the start of the last book in the series, Chowder finds herself in Australia, a continent full of crocodiles, kangaroos, and aborigines. Chowder presumes she is capable of handling everything. However, when sailing around the world for six years on a sailboat there are always more surprises in store for an exploring sea cat, especially when the unexpected is bound to happen. Over the remaining years of this grand voyage, Chowder, along with Captain Lee and mate Sheila, plot a course through the islands of Indonesia to the exotic countries of Malaysia and Thailand. Eventually they sail across the Indian Ocean to South Africa and beyond into the South Atlantic to Brazil and the Caribbean Sea, before making the last crossings via Bermuda to their final resting spot in Maine.

During this time, Chowder reveals her experiences with alligators, spinner dolphins, powerful lightning strikes, local pirates, komodo dragons, water spouts, large rolling seas, boa constrictors, spouting whales, and dancing elephants. In addition, she shares more stories about unusual glowing seas, bad storms, coral reefs, manta rays, strange jungle creatures, Zulu dancers, jungle safaris, exotic religious temples, and unusual native ceremonies. Her life would never be the same!

LeCain and Sheila have been living in Brooksville, Maine now for about twenty-three years. If you want to contact the author, send an email to: info@windroseaway.com. If you are interested in any of these wonderful books (either Paperback or E-book), you can visit our Windrose Productions website: www.windroseaway.com or go to any of your favorite local bookstores or order it from online retail outlets like Amazon or Bookshop.