Rick Kennedy, former owner of Boethius, Yankee #149 has written a book about sailing Boethius off the coast of southern California

Click here to go to Amazon's book page

Here are a few 'cover blurbs about the book.

Rick Kennedy is professor of history and environmental studies at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California.

Nobody tells the story of Southern California like Rick Kennedy. The Winds of Santa Ana expounds his own experience of the place—in his case, the bight, seen from his nautical sojourning historians’ eyes. The book creatively occupies the consciousness of historical figures like Richard Henry Dana and other saints who have shaped the spirituality of the place, from Los Angeles to the San Diego Harbor. Seen from his vessel Boethius and accompanied by the personified Philosophia for the journey, this book is a true love letter to the Southern California coast.

Jason S. Sexton, California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA, co-author of Theology and California: Theological

Refractions on California’s Culture Until I read Winds of Santa Ana, I had no idea just how deep and important the religious experience was in defining the cultural, social and political life of Southern California, while at the same time how its influence went far beyond the California Bight that Professor Kennedy sailed along sometimes solo, sometimes with his students. This amazing personal account fuses a maritime perspective with a considerable historical knowledge of the region from the Spanish period to the Present and presents its subject in an innovative spiritual light that changed my view of what it meant to grow up in the fertile religious environment of Southern California.

Jarrell Jackman, former CEO of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, author of Santa Barbara's Royal Presidio: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Spain's Last Adobe Fortress

For lovers of California history, Rick Kennedy’s spiritual memoir of sailing recounts the Christian stories of signs and wonders in the regional landscape and traces the movements of the Holy Spirit along the cities of the southern coast. Narrated with the salty wisdom of a storytelling sailor and the seasoned eye of a historian, The Winds of Santa Ana offers an abundance of riches for the reader: “This book is a pilgrim-sailor's hive, his florilegia, his anthology.” With a revitalizing, evangelical consciousness—distinctively Californian and dynamically erudite—Kennedy’s journey as a sailor-scholar aboard his beloved boat, Boethius, is a hopeful consolation for our generation, and a good reminder of our theological roots: “To live on the California Bight is to be constantly evangelized.” This book is both timely and delightful.

Karen An-Hwei Lee, provost of Wheaton College, her novel, Sonata in K, is set in Southern California.

There is no better guide to the California Bight, its natural beauty, human history, and spiritual potential than my friend Rick Kennedy, a pilgrim who has sailed its shores for decades. Read this book and see its wonders through the eyes of Rick’s heart. You will never be the same.

Douglas A. Sweeney, Dean, Beeson Divinity School, author of The American Evangelical Story: A History of the Movement

Kennedy is not only a gifted academic historian, he is also a pilgrim-sailor with the head of a philosopher, heart of a Christian mystic, and the soul of a poet. These traits are wonderfully on display in this imaginative and enchanting book. Winds of Santa Ana is saturated with rich insights and wisdom gained from years of sailing coastal Pacific waters in his beloved 24-foot Yankee Dolphin, Boethius. For Kennedy, sailing the California Bight in Boethius is far more than recreational; it is a pilgrimage, a conversation with creation and the Creator. Winds of Santa Ana nurtures the spiritual imagination; it is a book for those longing for a thicker description of nature, the past, and life than the reductive methodologies of the modern academy offer.

Donald Yerxa, former editor of Fides et Historia and Historically Speaking

To sail into the waters of Rick Kennedy’s memoir, Winds of Santa Ana: Pilgrim Stories of the California Bight is to voyage with a most affable, engaging captain. Part philosopher, part sage, part poet, Kennedy approaches his audience as a friend in his invitation to apprehend rich interior and exterior seas and landscapes. A reader might well choose to take this book on vacation; however, it serves a better purpose if one is longing for a revitalizing escape. Here we find a guide who both loves and knows his territories well. Winds of Santa Ana is no ordinary vacation, however, for Kennedy declares early on that we are taking a pilgrimage, which is not to be confused with an exploratory adventure.

His term for this pilgrimage is “pondering,” in that pilgrimages follow long established paths to hallowed places. It is clear that the inward and outward journeys and destinations of this memoir have a sacred value to Kennedy, enabling him to imbue its pages with deep reverence and affection for the planet and its creator. Despite the philosophical and faith-filled nature of our guide, he does not take himself too seriously, and we can relax and enjoy the shores and costal seas of his beloved California Bight.

Kennedy’s Bight comes to vibrant life in each chapter, which offers its own delightful homage to places that those of us less sea-worthy do not have the ability to traverse. Each place along the way becomes its own character, as does Boethius, his beloved boat. One of the best accolades one might give a book or other work of art is that is gives its reader, viewer, or listener a clear sense of having actually visited someone or somewhere. Winds does this for the reader, and the fine selection of photos and illustrations contribute to this sense.

Kennedy is a clearly a scholar, but he wears his mantle in the most friendly way. If you are not well read in history, philosophy, or literature, he fills in the gaps; if you are, he rewards your reading experience with enhanced insight. Rich with Biblical, historical, and literary touchstones, Winds is both narrative and experiential, and the sense of living Kennedy’s pilgrimage of pondering is quite restorative and life affirming, as any good holiday should be.

Kay Harkins author of Queen of the Leaves: A Memoir of Lost and Found.

The product of a lifetime on the sea, Rick Kennedy’s ruminations on the California Bight present a Christian spiritual topography of the Los Angeles Basin and its environs, from the Indian settlers and Spanish missions to spiritual seekers and modern-day megachurches. Simultaneously, in constant company with Boethius—both the philosopher and Kennedy’s boat—this sailor-pilgrim reflects on his vocation, the evangelical cause, and the interplay of place and faith in the Bight. This fine memoir uses Kennedy’s life-journey and evocations of the Mediterranean to describe the islands and coastlines, winds and waves as the means and fruits of Christian yearning for God’s presence in the world.

Glenn Sanders, Dean of the Liberal Arts and Sciences at King University.

This book will be appealing to readers on several scores: those interested in the environmental, maritime history of the San Diego area, and those interested in how a noted Christian historian weaves the religious history of the region into a unique connection to the sea and the vocation of sailing.

Ronald A. Wells, Professor of History, Emeritus, Calvin University, Michigan

In the Winds of Santa Ana, sailor/scholar Rick Kennedy sounds the sacramental depths of the California Bight. He bids readers to ponder the eternal meaning of diverse signs and symbols found along the coast, waterways, and islands. More than a place of dreams, the California Bight is a place where myth becomes fact—pelicans listen, rocks talk, waves proclaim, angels appear, and wise people long dead still communicate the grace of God. Part history, part philosophy, part sailing memoir, this book is entirely faithful scholarship.

Ben Cater, Director, Humanities Honors Program, Point Loma Nazarene University

************************