Once again I look forward to participating in the Seattle Boat Show and selling/signing my books at Captain’s Nautical Supply booth up on the concourse.

Seattle Boat Show January 30-February 7, 2025.

Besides presenting, I will be selling and signing my books at Captain’s Nautical Supply booth on Fridays and weekend days, as well as women’s day on Monday 2/2/26 when women can get into the show for free.

I will be presenting on these dates, times, and topics:

Friday January 30 1pm Cruising Gems in BC: Learn more about some of the great places to visit in BC that you may not already know about.

Monday February 2, 1-3pm Moderator, Becoming a Better Sailor Women’s Panel: Featuring a panel of women sailors with various levels of experience revealing how they evolved into the confident sailors they’ve become. Featuring Laurie Anna Kaplan, Karin Stevens, JJ Hoag and Elise Sivilay.

Friday February 6, 12pm Cruising the Inside Passage through BC and Alaska: Get a taste for the possibilities and how to make the most of the time you have to enjoy the glaciers, waterfalls, and hot springs; as well as wildlife including whales, bears, otters and more; and a native culture like no other place offers. This talk will include favorite spots, tips for trip planning, an overview of resources available, and potential pitfalls to help you prepare.

Friday February 6, 2:15pm Preserving Your Relationship/s Afloat: Venturing off in a boat puts new pressures on even well-established relationships. Learn techniques for addressing the diverse needs of a crew and dissipating tension aboard so you enjoy the places you visit and an unusual way of traveling there. She discusses how to find balance in a small, sometimes violently rocking environment, while facing the new challenges that cruising can present.

Speaker Bio:

Wendy Hinman has published articles in a variety of publications and is the award-winning author of two hit books: Tightwads on the Loose and Sea Trials. She is a regular speaker at yacht clubs and boat shows around the country and her presentations are filled with examples and infused with humor. She grew up sailing and has cruised and raced in venues around the globe in all sorts of boats as skipper and crew, sometimes winning. She spent seven years at sea, sailing 34,000 miles aboard a small, simple boat and learned the most essential ingredient aboard is a good sense of humor. She and her husband Garth Wilcox are currently building a boat for more cruising adventures. www.wendyhinman.com

For more seminar details, visit:
https://seattleboatshow.com/seminars/

To buy tickets: https://seattleboatshow.com/buy-tickets/

When she’s not presenting, you can find her autographing and signing books at the Captain’s Nautical Booth up on the concourse. Come pick up your guidebooks, tide books and take home some great sea stories.

A radio interview with David Cunningham of KPTZ Compass news magazine in Port Townsend.

Their highs and lows and misadventures are preserved in the hit book Tightwads on the Loose: A Seven-Year Pacific Odyssey.

“Some of the most satisfying things in life are that because they were hard to do.”

Listen to the radio interview with David Cunningham of KPTZ Compass news magazine in Port Townsend here.

Listen to the inspiring interview with adventurer Wendy Hinman and life coach and author Lyssa DeHart on her Story Jacking podcast. Their discussion encompasses what makes life worth living.

In their discussion, Wendy notes: “Change is constant in life. If you don’t choose change, it is imposed on you anyway. If you actively choose change, you are in more command of your life. There’s comfort in the predictable but it’s an illusion of safety. Comfort is what we seek as consolation for feeling a little bored. Expanding our comfort zone and leaping into the unknown is what make life exciting. If I’m afraid of something and take some step, those fears seem smaller. Gradually upping the ante to get more comfortable doing bigger things results in significant accomplishments over time. Once you’ve done something you’re not afraid of it anymore. It develops trust in your ability to be aware and react and read the world in new ways and to make conscious choices.

With my husband we bought a 31-foot boat that fit our budget better than it fit my husband’s large frame and set sail for an open-ended voyage, never imagining we’d be gone seven years, or cover 34,000 miles at the pace of a fast walk.

Velella Sailing in New Zealand

Sailing offshore offered me time to reflect and offered me many insights on living for becoming a “human being” rather than just a “human doing.” Stopping and taking stock lets you develop awareness to reflect on your own story in a way that can help you learn and grow. It lets us figure out who we are not just in relation to others. We can then take ownership of our story so we can consciously write our own desired ending.

Being in the moment, actively engaged with all your heart, in pursuit of a goal is what makes us feel alive. Empowerment comes through the process of doing something hard. Lifelong learning is what makes me feel alive. Expanding oneself in myriad ways through a broad range of experiences is thrilling. Sometimes, the only thing I may have control over is my attitude. I’ve realized that failure is not making a mistake but giving up and when I’m struggling, I need to find a way to shift gears to find a more positive way to look at things and take steps to make my situation better.

You never know what you’re capable of accomplishing until you do it, one step at a time. That’s how we can all manifest what we want.”

Get inspired to rewrite your own story. Listen to the interview here.

https://soundcloud.com/lyssadehart/tightwads-on-the-loose-sj-5

Here’s an interview with author Wendy Hinman about her amusing, award-winning book Tightwads on the Loose on KSER FM Sound Living.

This interview shares her signature humor that helped her navigate over 34,000 miles around the Pacific Ocean with her husband over their seven-year voyage. Hear the stories behind the person who wrote the best-selling book.

Tightwads on the Loose tells the story of Wendy and Garth, lured to sea by the promise of adventure. They buy a 31-foot boat that fits their budget better than it fits Garth’s large frame and set sail for an open-ended voyage, never imagining they’d be gone seven years, or cover 34,000 miles at the pace of a fast walk. They live without most “necessities” and learn that teamwork and a sense of humor matter most as they face endless “character-building opportunities.” They make a long-anticipated visit to the island where Garth had been shipwrecked as a teenager, only to find it had become a penal colony. An electronic catastrophe in the Solomon Islands leaves them without navigation equipment, which forces them to trade their free-wheeling lifestyle for one that seems straight out of a ’60s sitcom: jobs at a U.S. Army base in the Marshall Islands. In Asia, they dodge typhoons and ships that threaten to turn their home into kindling. Finally they endure a grueling 49-day nonstop ocean crossing. None of this prepares them for their arrival “home” to a post-9/11 America which leaves them wondering what had changed more, them or the world. Tightwads on the Loose offers a fun read to the armchair adventurer — or anyone afflicted with wanderlust.

Wendy and Garth with Kastam villagers in Vanuatu

Listen to this lighthearted interview with thoughtful questions about living differently by host Ed Bremer.

Interview with KSER’s Ed Bremer on Sound Living about the adventurous woman behind the book Tightwads on the Loose: A Seven-year Pacific Odyssey.

Read Tightwads on the Loose: A Seven-year Pacific Odyssey today.

Welcome to BOOKS BY MY FRIENDS, Wendy! Let’s set sail and chat about Tightwads on the Loose: A Seven-Year Pacific Odyssey.

JH: What’s the blurb for your book?

WH: Imagine spending 24 hours a day with your spouse in 31 not-so-square feet . . . for years; crossing the Pacific Ocean on two gallons of fuel; and tossing spaghetti marinara around your living room, then cleaning it up while bouncing like ice in a martini shaker. Tightwads on the Loose tells the story of Wendy and Garth, lured to sea by the promise of adventure. They buy a 31-foot boat that fits their budget better than it fits Garth’s large frame and set sail for an open-ended voyage, never imagining they’d be gone seven years, or cover 34,000 miles at the pace of a fast walk. They live without most “necessities” and learn that teamwork and a sense of humor matter most as they face endless “character-building opportunities.” “Tightwads on the Loose offers a fun read to the armchair adventurer — or anyone afflicted with wanderlust.” A readers favorite.

JH: What inspired you to write this book?

WH: I grew up a voracious reader. I devoured books and immersed myself in stories to explore and understand the world and to soothe me when I didn’t. A school project in which we assembled our writing into a book left a strong impression on me at a young age. I always enjoyed writing and secretly yearned to be an author of a story that moved people as books have moved me. Before I wrote my first book, I was a magazine editor, but our voyage gave me a clearly defined story with broad appeal and provided a perfect springboard for my writing career. During our voyage, I shared our adventures with friends and family and discovered the audience kept growing as people shared my posts and updates with friends and family. Upon our return from our voyage, I kept getting invitations to do presentations. Many people who’d read my updates urged me to write a book about our voyage. As I wrote it, I imagined bringing joy, laughter, and insight to people as they read my stories. I initially wrote my book for fans of my blog and my email updates not knowing whether it had a broader appeal. People have fallen in love with the narrative voice, which is full of humor. It has been described as a “cult classic” among sailors but reaches far beyond that audience to dreamers of all sorts, to those in need of a little escapism.

Read the rest here:
Joy E. Held Interview with Wendy Hinman, Author of Tightwads on the Loose: A Seven-Year Pacific Odyssey

https://joyeheld.substack.com/p/books-by-my-friends-wendy-hinman

Enjoy a great adventure together.
Check out these two adventure stories by @wendy_hinman

Wendy Hinman’s hit book, Tightwads on the Loose: A Seven-Year Pacific Odyssey, details her seven year adventure afloat. You can find it in paperback, eBook and audio, too!

Her second book, Sea Trials tells the gripping story of her husband Garth’s family in a tireless quest to sail around the world despite daunting challenges including a shipwreck, rebuilding a boat on a remote island, and threats from wild weather, pirates, gun boats, mines and thieves, a broken rig, scurvy and starvation. It is a story of grit and determination. Sea Trials has been named a Kirkus Best Book of 2017. And a Foreword Reviews Best Book! And a Readers Favorite! Available in paperback, eBook and audiobook. You can order it here.

As the Seattle Review of Books once said, “Both books are a blast to read.”

Now on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/search/Wendy%20Hinman/audiobooks

#sailing #audiobooks #greatreads
#weekendreading #Romance #vacation #ValentinesDay

Wendy Hinman will be presenting again this year at the Seattle Boat Show.

Women’s Panel on the making of a sailor on Monday 2/6, 2023 at 3-5pm.
Cruising the Inside Passage through BC to Alaska on Friday 1/10/2023 2-3pm.

For more about the seminars, visit: https://seattleboatshow.com/seminars/

When she’s not presenting, you can find her autographing and signing books at the Captain’s Nautical Booth up on the concourse. Come pick up your guidebooks, tide books and take home some great sea stories.

Opportunity awaits . . . Dream big.

Here’s your inspiration.

Wendy Hinman’s hit book, Tightwads on the Loose: A Seven-Year Pacific Odyssey, details her seven year adventure afloat wandering the ocean in search of adventure. In paperback, eBook and audio, too!

Her second book, Sea Trials tells the gripping story of her husband Garth’s family in a tireless quest to sail around the world despite daunting challenges including a shipwreck, rebuilding a boat on a remote island, and threats from wild weather, pirates, gun boats, mines and thieves, a broken rig, scurvy and starvation. It is a story of grit and determination. Sea Trials has been named a Kirkus Best Book of 2017. And a Foreword Reviews Best Book! And a Readers Favorite! Available in paperback, eBook and audiobook. You can order it here.

As the Seattle Review of Books once said, “Both books are a blast to read.”

Here’s the full quote: “Hinman’s award-winning books, Tightwads on the Loose and Sea Trials, document both adventures with honesty, humor, and spirit. Both books are a blast to read.” –Seattle Review of Books

Now also available in audiobook format from most major audiobook sellers.

Or you can order here:

https://www.amazon.com/Wendy-Hinman/e/B007Z6TRRO

Wendy Hinman is the author of two books: Sea Trials: Around the World with Duct Tape and Bailing Wire and Tightwads on the Loose: A Seven Year Pacific Odyssey. Sea Trials focuses on her husband’s family’s experiences, while Tightwads on the Loose looks at her and her husband’s travels. Both are now available as audiobooks. Hinman reviews books for Foreword Reviews.

Q: How did writing Sea Trials, about your husband’s family, differ from writing Tightwads on the Loose, a memoir about the adventures you and your husband had in the Pacific?

A: I wrote Tightwads on the Loose first. In some ways it was easier because I was there and didn’t have to do any research.

Initially I started writing scenes that I most wanted to capture—events that stood out during our seven-year journey around the Pacific. I wrote each scene as a stand-alone and in no particular order.

Once I had crafted scenes that highlighted the journey I shaped them as a whole into a cohesive story arc that linked everything together. I think my lighthearted style built on scenes let the reader feel as though they were experiencing the journey for themselves.

One key thing I realized when I began writing was that for any series of events, it’s possible to shape them into various different stories. With an extended adventure such as this, I had to make a lot of decisions about what to include and what not to include.

There were many places where we had encounters with ships or storms that threatened to turn our floating home into kindling and thrilling experiences with nature or foreign cultures.

I kept asking myself “What is the story am I trying to tell?” From there I made choices that supported my themes and the pace of the story. I also figured if it was fun to write, then it’d be fun to read.

The writing of Sea Trials went faster, probably because I had more experience by then and it had a dramatic, clearly defined story arc. While there’s humor in the story, I didn’t feel as free to joke about someone else’s hardships as I was about my own as I did in Tightwads on the Loose so the voice is more serious.

Q: Of the various experiences you’ve written about, do any of them particularly stand out in your mind?

A: The many intimate moments in nature—frolicking in waterfalls, playing in the rain, enjoying a sunset—remind me that nature puts on an amazing show every day if only we stop to appreciate it.

We visited islands so tiny that maps rarely featured them and met native people who live much as they did thousands of years ago—people content with a simple way of life surrounded by family and community. That left a strong impression on me and changed the way I approach life.

I am glad that I wrote Tightwads on the Loose first because the events in Sea Trials were so dramatic, I might otherwise have considered my own sailing adventure less worthy of sharing.

In hindsight, what I realize both books show is how important one’s attitude is in defining one’s experiences and the outcome. That’s a life lesson that sticks with me.

A couple of events come to mind that demonstrate that attitude is key are an incident when I spilled spaghetti marinara all over the interior of our boat; and then a miserable, wet passage from New Zealand to Fiji during a storm. In both circumstances, when I stopped to consider the absurdity of the situations and saw the humor in them, it made everything more bearable and enjoyable.

Likewise, I think it was humor and optimism among the family members that pulled them through challenging times when they were shipwrecked, sinking, or suffering from scurvy. I don’t think any of us realize what we are capable of achieving until we push ourselves and that’s what makes life exciting.

Whenever I feel dissatisfied with life, I find I need to ask myself whether I just need to readjust my attitude to embrace a challenge. I think of a friend and fellow writer who jokes “Plot twist!” whenever life gets hard.

Read more about Wendy’s inpiration and writing process here as well as discover other great books and authors:
https://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/2022/09/q-with-wendy-hinman.html