In 1960, 18-year-old Jutta Townes leaves her German coal-mining town and migrates to Australia looking for freedom. She meets a lanky Australian engineer with a yen to sail around the world, and together they buy a traditional wooden yacht and grab adventure with both hands. They sail the eastern coasts of Australia, Africa and South America and the oceans in between, then with a new boat - and a new baby - they travel from Germany down the Danube through the Eastern Bloc countries to Istanbul and the Aegean.
For Love and the Sea is a story of discovery, fellowship, and moments of sublime beauty as well as sheer terror. It also looks back, with the compassion and perspective of time, at a young woman finding her way through adulthood and marriage. Townes writes vividly of travel before GPS and satellite communications and explores what it means to grow up, come to terms with the past, and look forward to the future with an adventurous heart.