Sailing at the Edge of Disaster

A Memoir of a Young Woman’s Daring Year

By: Elizabeth W. Garber

Narrated by: Stacey Glemboski

In 1971, Elizabeth Garber’s domineering father announced he was sending his “problem children”—seventeen-year-old bookish Elizabeth and her fourteen-year-old brother Woodie—to a school on a sailing ship, in order to “shape up and learn to work.” Sailing at the Edge of Disaster: A Memoir of a Young Woman’s Daring Year chronicles Garber’s adventures, along with the fifty teen misfits and their teacher chaperones aboard the sailing school housed on a once-magnificent yacht formerly owned by General Post heiress, socialite, and philanthropist Marjorie Merriweather Post. Sailing at the Edge of Disaster follows the journey of Oceanics School students and faculty as they motor the limping ship out of Miami to begin the grand itinerary their charismatic twenty-five-year-old school director envisioned. Along the way, the ship survives a gale at sea, a hole in the hull at deep water, an act of piracy, a near miss with a nuclear sub, and are held hostage by armed gunboats in Panama. The print version of the book was published by Toad Hall Editions, Northport, ME.

©2022 Elizabeth Garber (P)2023 Spoken Realms

I enjoyed this book.

This is a great book of a coming of age story in a completely different time.

Living Vicariously While Listening

If you’re looking for a true story based on journals, an exceptionally detailed memory, and collective interviews, this is the one.

Whether you lived through the turmoil of the late sixties/early seventies or not, you will be entertained, amazed, infuriated, and probably cry.

Having read Garber’s memoir of an architect ‘s daughter, IMPLOSION, I knew this sequel was coming and I looked forward to learning much more about this “oceanic school.”

I totally expected the excellent quality of writing that Elizabeth Garber provides. I didn’t expect—and certainly should have—the immensity of how much this audiobook would feel to me as if I’d lived on the ship with those people myself. The point-of-view character—and I say that about a memoir because it reads like a novel—is a timid book-loving girl.

She is relatable, lovely, and lovable, as she painstakingly discovers her voice and value. I could say more but don’t want to spoil…

The voice narrator was perfect, too.

Oh, and you’ll come away from this book feeling as if you just experienced an unforgettable nautical adventure yourself!