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The Cure for Anything Is Salt Water: How I Threw My Life Overboard and Found Happiness at Sea – An Inspiring Midlife Memoir
At forty, Mary South had a beautiful home, good friends, and a successful career in book publishing. But she couldn't help feeling that she was missing something intangible but essential. So she decided to go looking for it . . . at sea. Six months later she had quit her job, sold the house, and was living aboard a forty-foot, thirty-ton steel trawler she rechristened Bossanova. Despite her total lack of experience, South set out on her maiden voyage—a fifteen-hundred-mile odyssey from Florida to Maine—with her one-man, two-dog crew. But what began as the fulfillment of an idle wish became a crash course in navigating the complicated byways of the self.
224 pages, Paperback
First published May 22, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 57 reviews
November 16, 2015
Description: At forty, Mary South seemed to have it all: a beautiful home in Pennsylvania, a group of close friends, the companionship of two loving Jack Russell terriers and a successful career in book publishing. But shuttling between the conference room at work and her couch in front of the TV at home, South couldn't help feeling that she was missing something intangible but essential. So she decided to go looking for it where so many have before: at sea.
Six months later, she had quit her job, sold the house, graduated seamanship school and was living aboard a 40-foot, 30-ton steel trawler. Despite South's total lack of experience, the maiden voyage of the rechristened Bossanova was to be a journey up the eastern seaboard. Along with her crew (the dogs and her buddy John—her odd-couple opposite in politics, lifestyle and pretty much everything except a love of the open ocean), she set off on a fifteen-hundred mile odyssey from Florida to Maine. But what began as the fulfillment of an idle wish became a crash course in navigating the byways of the self.
Opening: Not long ago, I was probably a lot like you. I had a successful career, a pretty home, two dogs and a fairly normal life. All I kept were the dogs. Then one day in October 2003, I quit my good job and put my sweet little house on the market. I packed a duffel bag of clothes and everything else I owned went into storage. Within weeks I was the proud owner of an empty bank account and a 40-foot, 30-ton steel trawler that I had no idea how to run.
This woman is a snarky malcontent and a complaining ingrate - what's with the dissing of PA, some of the finest people I know live there. I suppose we all wriggle and squirm when feeling like a square peg in a round hole. So, having put the personality to one side, the factual adventuring is wonderful.
Tugboat definition: a small, powerful boat for towing or pushing ships, barges etc. Roll 'tugboat' across your palate and see if it doesn't fill your senses with the power of small efficiency - that middle 'g' is exhilarating, and the lingering end 't' sealing in the strength.
**gasp** I have just found out that a Mary South was Tom Cruise's mam, however let me qualify, that woman (Tom Cruise Actor's mother goes missing, Scientology blamed ) has nothing to do with this woman.
I found a Murrell's Inlet - so maybe this is a typo in the book.
A quick read which should have front-ended more feel-good-factor to let readers buy in.
Six months later, she had quit her job, sold the house, graduated seamanship school and was living aboard a 40-foot, 30-ton steel trawler. Despite South's total lack of experience, the maiden voyage of the rechristened Bossanova was to be a journey up the eastern seaboard. Along with her crew (the dogs and her buddy John—her odd-couple opposite in politics, lifestyle and pretty much everything except a love of the open ocean), she set off on a fifteen-hundred mile odyssey from Florida to Maine. But what began as the fulfillment of an idle wish became a crash course in navigating the byways of the self.
Opening: Not long ago, I was probably a lot like you. I had a successful career, a pretty home, two dogs and a fairly normal life. All I kept were the dogs. Then one day in October 2003, I quit my good job and put my sweet little house on the market. I packed a duffel bag of clothes and everything else I owned went into storage. Within weeks I was the proud owner of an empty bank account and a 40-foot, 30-ton steel trawler that I had no idea how to run.
This woman is a snarky malcontent and a complaining ingrate - what's with the dissing of PA, some of the finest people I know live there. I suppose we all wriggle and squirm when feeling like a square peg in a round hole. So, having put the personality to one side, the factual adventuring is wonderful.Tugboat definition: a small, powerful boat for towing or pushing ships, barges etc. Roll 'tugboat' across your palate and see if it doesn't fill your senses with the power of small efficiency - that middle 'g' is exhilarating, and the lingering end 't' sealing in the strength.
**gasp** I have just found out that a Mary South was Tom Cruise's mam, however let me qualify, that woman (Tom Cruise Actor's mother goes missing, Scientology blamed ) has nothing to do with this woman.
'Burrells Inlet, South Carolina. If you're ever in the neighborhood, stop by. Tucked back behind a strip of shoreline north of Pawley's Island and south of Myrtle Beach, it was one of the friendliest places we visited.'
- 69/133
I found a Murrell's Inlet - so maybe this is a typo in the book.
A quick read which should have front-ended more feel-good-factor to let readers buy in.
September 5, 2012
I confess to having a weakness for non-fiction books about women who check out of their “normal” hum- drum lives, do interesting things, preferably on their own.
I admire this.
Mary South is an interesting woman who did an interesting thing, on her own. She up and quit her job because it was annoying her, and wasn’t working for her, and found a better life.
I’m always am in favor of this if it’s not working for you and you can do it.
Plus I did it, so I’m biased.
She said re: her job, ""I was in a contamination zone and I felt panicky about getting out."
Many of us can relate?
Anyhoo, Mary quit her successful publishing job, took a tough nine week mariners course, met some really interesting people in the process, like a successful high powered attorney, with chronic insomnia, hypertension and a drinking problem who also chucked his job.
“Good for him,” I thought.
In the midst of this she bought a boat.
Your thinking sailing boat, I know, and maybe your thinking, “Oh I’m tired of all these lucky people who buy yachts and sail around the world. The oceans must be littered with all these unemployed people sailing around in them.”
Probably, really, not. Although it does seem like this, to me too.
Anyway, she didn’t buy a yacht. I had to look this up to get it right, she bought a motorized trawler.
Google it. .
She motored it with John from Florida to New York. He is the smart attorney she met in the mariner’s class, who chucked his job.
This trip is what the book is about mostly, but also her life and relationships.
She is interesting and writes well, for example "The worst of the (storm) front just turned and wandered off, like an exhausted bully with attention deficit disorder."
She is a person who wrote a memoir who I would actually like to meet and that is saying a lot. Many of these authors, I think, great memoir, probably don’t want to meet you. Augusten Burroughs comes to mind.
Love his books, a lot. Don’t want to meet him.
Anyway, she seems interesting and her book is good. Augusten’s are better….but she is probably a lot nicer.
Recommend if you are interested in this sort of thing.
It isn’t like climbing Mt Everest and being John Krakauer.
But then, what is?
August 24, 2017
A good realistic look at what it takes to buy a boat, learn to handle the boat and the first 1000 mile journey. I'd always had this fantasy that it would be great to just buy a sailboat (I'm too frugal to pay for gas) and take off. Mary choose a motored boat as it would be easier to learn. What I learned is that my easy life fantasy would probably get me killed. Thank you Mary you may have saved my life!
May 30, 2011
I don't know a lot about boats, but I enjoyed the story of South's adventures on her own trawler from Florida to New York. I do know something about publishing, so I found her references to her previous career fairly entertaining. Her references to her past love life were a little harder to connect with--she seems like a fairly rigid person when it comes to her relationships and her views of people. Her description of her fling with a man after years of only dating women was equally hard to understand--she didn't seem to be concerned that he was cheating on his girlfriend to be with her, just concerned about what it said about her sexual identity. I guess she wasn't exactly thinking about issues like ethics or honesty in relationships at the time--which didn't help me feel a lot of sympathy for her. Ah well, the boating adventure sounded fun.
May 28, 2014
Excellent... the technical parts were well-done; she makes it sound simple for as tough as it was to get started. A quick and enjoyable read. I do, however, believe the dogs should not have been put through so much traumatization as they evidently were, during the storms at sea...poor things! They should have been shipped ahead to a luxury kennel! ps. I am taking one star away because the only way this book could be improved is if it had PICTURES OF THE BOSSANOVA and of the trip, and a combination map-timeline depicting the trip and key events! that would be awesome! some time when I have a free weekend, maybe I will reread and make the map-timeline... :)I recommend this for a weekend read.
September 26, 2009
This was an enjoyable, quick read. I liked her writing style, very accessible.
I found the title a little misleading, although one could call me anal. She didn't really throw her life overboard, in my mind. She quit her job, sold her house, bought a boat and set out for 3 weeks.
I thought the trip would have been longer and more remote and adventuresome than that. So... leaves me thinking: Maybe I should throw my life overboard and seek some REAL adventure. Then write about it. And perhaps that's what Mary South was getting at.
I found the title a little misleading, although one could call me anal. She didn't really throw her life overboard, in my mind. She quit her job, sold her house, bought a boat and set out for 3 weeks.
I thought the trip would have been longer and more remote and adventuresome than that. So... leaves me thinking: Maybe I should throw my life overboard and seek some REAL adventure. Then write about it. And perhaps that's what Mary South was getting at.
March 7, 2010
This is non-fiction. As salt water soothes my soul, I found the title intriguing! I love reading about others abandoning their day-to-day lives and taking off on life-changing adventures; something I yearn to do, but am either too practical or too chicken to do. I'd give this book more stars if I was more interested in boating...some of the technical descriptions caused my mind to wander. The author is someone with whom I'd love to have a conversation...if for no other reason than to ask: how did you let go of fear and just jump into it??
October 14, 2008
The brief biography of a woman's approach to becoming a sailor, perhaps to suit her nickname, Mare. Having been employed as an editor for many years in several locations she found it time to begin anew with a home on a boat. A steel hulled trawler was her choice. To overcome a deficit of experience Mare enrolled in an accelerated course in Florida coincidentally co-located near the boat she was buying. Surviving the traumas of the nine week course she and a fellow graduate sail the newly christened Bosanova up the Atlantic coast.
Here begins the best part of the story, where Mare interweaves more of her historic details with the daily difficulties and stringent order required to maneuver a 30 ton boat in both close quarters of a marina and in the storm torn open seas of the Atlantic in spring.
The most telling poignancies come with the coast guards periodic announcements of another persons disaster at sea while cruising safely nearby. The sea is a place that compels strict adherence to an orderly ship and observance of safety measures no matter how petty and annoying at other times, for when needed they must fall promptly to hand. The sea offers no pause switch from a convenient remote control.
This brief travel segment relates the best and the frightening worst of a journey by water and makes the book well worth reading. The end is a bit tacked on of a personal nature only indirectly concerned with the now dry docked boat. Her fellow traveler, John, is left out of the tales end as are all previously detailed people so intimately involved in passing her course at Charles F. Chapman School of Seamanship. She hints at stories with her grand mother but drops that tale also. Many stories are begun but not continued. There is a lack consistency in the adventure's resolution, not even the Bosanova herself is given a final explicit birth after being dry docked. In all a weak, disorganized ending, sort of like life, but still not satisfying in a book.
Here begins the best part of the story, where Mare interweaves more of her historic details with the daily difficulties and stringent order required to maneuver a 30 ton boat in both close quarters of a marina and in the storm torn open seas of the Atlantic in spring.
The most telling poignancies come with the coast guards periodic announcements of another persons disaster at sea while cruising safely nearby. The sea is a place that compels strict adherence to an orderly ship and observance of safety measures no matter how petty and annoying at other times, for when needed they must fall promptly to hand. The sea offers no pause switch from a convenient remote control.
This brief travel segment relates the best and the frightening worst of a journey by water and makes the book well worth reading. The end is a bit tacked on of a personal nature only indirectly concerned with the now dry docked boat. Her fellow traveler, John, is left out of the tales end as are all previously detailed people so intimately involved in passing her course at Charles F. Chapman School of Seamanship. She hints at stories with her grand mother but drops that tale also. Many stories are begun but not continued. There is a lack consistency in the adventure's resolution, not even the Bosanova herself is given a final explicit birth after being dry docked. In all a weak, disorganized ending, sort of like life, but still not satisfying in a book.
December 15, 2015
At forty, South chose to set aside her conventional life and follow her dream—which led her to Florida to buy a trawler, into which she moved. She had no boating experience, just a nine-week course under her belt. No real crew, just a friend from that course to help her get the boat to Massachusetts. And she had no plan about what to do when she got there.
Premise, yes. Execution, hmm. Most of the book is devoted to that trip north—or rather, first to that seamanship course and then to the trip north. It's fun, yes, light and humorous; she's gaining her sea legs on that trip and learning what it means to captain her own small boat. But I found myself hoping for more: for that trip to be only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, and for the book to cover more of the then what. And we really don't get that. We get an affair, and we get a season in Massachusetts, and we get a promise that she found the love of her life (who is not described, unlike all of South's exes), and the book flap tells me that when she's not on the Bossanova, she lives in New York. But doing what?
I am left with the sense that this is less a story of casting off from one's life to build a new one and more a story of a break before the next thing. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, of course. It's just not really what I expected. Some of it (details of previous relationships and her lone fling with a man, for example) felt more like padding than like fully realised narrative.
Not as much depth as I had hoped, then, but an enjoyable and quick read.
Premise, yes. Execution, hmm. Most of the book is devoted to that trip north—or rather, first to that seamanship course and then to the trip north. It's fun, yes, light and humorous; she's gaining her sea legs on that trip and learning what it means to captain her own small boat. But I found myself hoping for more: for that trip to be only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, and for the book to cover more of the then what. And we really don't get that. We get an affair, and we get a season in Massachusetts, and we get a promise that she found the love of her life (who is not described, unlike all of South's exes), and the book flap tells me that when she's not on the Bossanova, she lives in New York. But doing what?
I am left with the sense that this is less a story of casting off from one's life to build a new one and more a story of a break before the next thing. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, of course. It's just not really what I expected. Some of it (details of previous relationships and her lone fling with a man, for example) felt more like padding than like fully realised narrative.
Not as much depth as I had hoped, then, but an enjoyable and quick read.
December 15, 2009
This was a quick read, and did make me want to be out on the ocean. It is interesting that it wasn't better edited considering she used to be an editor. I think that at times the mentions of her past relationships seemed choppy and out of place--although they were relevant to the change process she was going through by buying the boat. this was a quick fun memoir about an interesting life experience.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 20, 2007
This is a nice story about a woman wanting to explore a new lifestyle, and reinvent herself. It is very admirable that Ms. South was able to accomplish so much at sea. I enjoyed learning about the mechanics of ships, nautical exploration, and navigation. Surprisingly, I was not bored with all the technical marine details. It reads like fiction.
April 30, 2009
This memoir really struck a chord with me--the notion of abandoning your reasonably stable but conventional career, as well as conventional wisdom and following your dream, no matter how audacious. I also like her writing style, and there are some truly memorable, funny lines, like the font she used to pen her boat's name on it's stern, "Retardica Bold"...,
May 20, 2008
Change is good...
July 14, 2014
loved the book, and wish they could make it into a movie
July 3, 2020
I admired Mary’s quitting her job and buying a boat and taking all the courses, which sounded hard. I liked the story of her first trip with John and the stops in all the ports. I didn’t like her dogs being terrified and nauseous while on the boat. Maybe they should have been left with a friend or relative; she apparently has tons of friends and close relationships with her one brother and her parents, Also, the relationship with Lars, who had a girlfriend...and Mary is a lesbian...? Sorry, unethical cheating for both Lars and Mary ...she puts the cheating blame on him...it’s on both. And, she really hates Pennsylvania! As a resident of the state, I found this annoying. My complaints aside, it was a quick ride and I learned a little about the boating world.
February 1, 2019
As someone who enjoys reading true life adventures, Mary South’s book didn’t disappoint. Leaving her life as a successful editor to buy a trawler and enjoy new adventures, South first enrolls in a training program on how to handle her new boat then takes it from Florida to New York, and eventually Maine. I am always impressed with people who follow their dreams, no matter how crazy they may seem to others. Thanks to South for sharing her adventure with us.
February 16, 2023
This made me want to throw my life overboard and sail the seven seas. I found Mary South's writing a bit snarky, but I admire her for making a big change when she realized she wasn't happy with her corporate 9-5. I liked reading about her adventure and learning about the purchase and operation of an ocean-going vessel.
December 10, 2017
interesting tale woman buys boat and captains DL to Maine
May 26, 2018
Writing a good book seems like a no-brainer for a former book editor, but making marine engines interesting is a rare gift. This book is well written and an enjoyable read.
April 18, 2020
Goodwill buy. Good... nice. Trawler knowledge. Glad I read.
June 17, 2020
A fun read well suited to a beach.
September 7, 2025
Good writing but a little "too much information (TMI)" regarding her personal life.
October 1, 2016
I read this memoir on the plane back from a Fort Myers Beach vacation, so I was in that beachy headspace that perceived returning home as some sort of trauma. The driving force behind South's imperative to reject her successfully privileged life and embark on one less conventional is becoming ubiquitous in women's memoirs, indicating commonality amongst women as outsiders. It is no surprise that she escapes via the Bossanova into a likewise marginal lifestyle, albeit self chosen and happily quirky. Throughout the journey, she experiences her "self" quite differently than she had been situated in the past, stating
"And it was this sense of liberation that made me understand what my journey was really all about. Someone once suggested that I was redefining myself, but that wasn't true. In fact, I was undefining myself. It was as though I'd made a list of 'Everything I know about me' and was just erasing each item, one by one" (147).
Rejecting the oversight of that ever-present "someone" and a removed interpretation of her own relationship with herself, she presents an even bolder reality--a complete annihilation of self. It is both a drive towards and away from the concept of authenticity. As a memoir whose depth is, in truth, quite limited, South is not pondering much more than this. The book seems more sincere it its shallow tone, however, and joins a growing bibliography of memoirs by women documenting similar out of bounds journeys.
"And it was this sense of liberation that made me understand what my journey was really all about. Someone once suggested that I was redefining myself, but that wasn't true. In fact, I was undefining myself. It was as though I'd made a list of 'Everything I know about me' and was just erasing each item, one by one" (147).
Rejecting the oversight of that ever-present "someone" and a removed interpretation of her own relationship with herself, she presents an even bolder reality--a complete annihilation of self. It is both a drive towards and away from the concept of authenticity. As a memoir whose depth is, in truth, quite limited, South is not pondering much more than this. The book seems more sincere it its shallow tone, however, and joins a growing bibliography of memoirs by women documenting similar out of bounds journeys.
April 5, 2016
This book I brought along with me on a cruise as I thought it would be great sea reading. It was less about Mary's adventures and more about her love life. She recounts tales of former (lesbian) lovers. However, I did enjoy the information contained about ships at sea, Coast Guard communications, charting, and porting. I feel like I could talk intelligently about boating now. I enjoyed the few times she delved into friendships, but thought some of her other relationships added a choppy, disjointed aspect to the book.
Fav quote: "There's nothing to mourn. There are wonderful things ahead of us as surely as there are sad ones. What's important is to be alive, to feel these things deeply as they happen because they make us--we are just blood, bone, guts--and the sum of these moments. They become who we are: individuals who are mysteriously flavored by our past; who live every minute with the consequences of who we have loved and who has loved us."
Fav quote: "There's nothing to mourn. There are wonderful things ahead of us as surely as there are sad ones. What's important is to be alive, to feel these things deeply as they happen because they make us--we are just blood, bone, guts--and the sum of these moments. They become who we are: individuals who are mysteriously flavored by our past; who live every minute with the consequences of who we have loved and who has loved us."
December 12, 2007
Mary South was unhappy, very unhappy, with her life as a successful book editor. She quits her job, sells her house, buys a boat, grabs her two Jack Russell terriers and heads to Florida for seamanship school. Her trip back up the Atlantic in her boat was one of the least interesting parts of the book for me. I did enjoy the latter portion of the book when she delves more fully into self-exploration and her discovery of how she wants her life to progress forward. If I had to base my rating on the back half of the book I probably would have given it four stars, but I felt compelled to take it down a star given that the first half of the book was closer to average in my opinion.
October 21, 2011
About a middle aged single tomboy, who had enough of life in the publishing houses of New York and all that goes with it. Buys a boat, a big one at that, and takes it for a spin up the East of USA, and finds a new person in herself.
A well written, short and interesting book, with a flavour of naivity. Not a book for information, but more of what drives someone. She loves her boat despite it being little on the ugly ducking side of things, it is after all a Bolger design, very pratical, roomy, 40ft long, steel trawler. But she does handle it herself.
A well written, short and interesting book, with a flavour of naivity. Not a book for information, but more of what drives someone. She loves her boat despite it being little on the ugly ducking side of things, it is after all a Bolger design, very pratical, roomy, 40ft long, steel trawler. But she does handle it herself.
August 20, 2007
I really enjoyed the first few chapters of this book and highly recommend starting it, but not finishing it. The momentum ebbs and flows and while enjoyable is not really something that needs to be prioritized. It is very interesting however in the first few chapters to see someone making such life altering decisions. And yes, the romantic notion of throwing it all overboard and sailing around the world cannot be overrated.
June 15, 2010
A lot like Eat Pray Love in that this is an autobiography about a woman's escape from a bad relationship/job/situation/whatever by running off on an adventure. I wasn't a fan of Eat Pray Love and South isn't even close to being in that league of writing. Not enough boating and a strange non-ending.
September 26, 2011
Interesting because of the boat, but the writer was pretty catty, and much of the subject matter didn't really pertain (her lovelife...), since it wasn't associated with the boat. Seemed more like filler, to keep the readers' interests, because she didn't have enough to say about her boating experiences. For all that, though, I enjoyed reading what little she wrote about the ICW, and going offshore.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 57 reviews