After taking early retirement, Dave and Arlene plan a voyage across the Pacific Ocean. They intend to sail from Victoria, Canada, to Brisbane, Australia, via Hawaii. But neither of them has ever been on a sailboat, so first they buy a boat and circumnavigate Vancouver Island while they learn to sail it. The preparation is long and hard, the voyage often demanding, and the adventure life changing. Still, there are days and nights of pure magic along the way, while the islands visited are a bonus, providing access to peoples and cultures only previously imagined.