'No More Mondays'

"Duluth had been home port for Vonnie-T, and the bridge, like our family, was just one more thing we were leaving behind. When we said goodbye to that bridge, our philosophical shore, we said goodbye to security, safety, family, friends, jobs, and nearly everything from our previous lives. We were proud of our courage, yet frightened that we might be overly confident.... Then we heard the Great Lakes salute: three long and two short blasts from the bridge horn."

review by Gayla Marty

From M, winter 2004

Bundled up at my bus stop at 7 a.m. on dark winter mornings, I marvel at all of us. Here we are in the middle of a Minnesota winter, getting up, going off to work and school. Every running car is a miracle. Every padded human is--a little crazy. Former University extension educator and professor LaVonne Misner and her alumnus husband, Tom Olson, had similar thoughts.

Misner supervised the federally funded Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program on the Twin Cities campus in St. Paul; Olson was a mechanical engineer who worked in middle management. After years of dreaming, saving, and planning, they sailed out of the Duluth harbor in July 1987 in a 50-foot boat called the Vonnie-T for a year on the high seas. Or so they thought.

The honeymoon period wore off quickly. Long before they were out of the Great Lakes, Misner found herself wondering: Why am I doing this? Why did I leave my warm, dry house, and a job I liked, work that gave me a sense of worth and control? Nevertheless, after one year, anchored off the coast of Venezuela, Misner decided to leave her job permanently so they could sail on. Six years later, they sold the boat in New Zealand and moved to San Diego.

Misner published her homespun account of their travels, along with dozens of photos, as No More Mondays: A Nautical Oddysey. The book recreates the world of life at sea, from whale sightings and saltwater spray to ham radio, radar, and satellite navigation. It also reveals Misner's evolving relationship with her husband and their changing views as they encounter the world.

It's a good tale for some cold nights.

No More Mondays: A Nautical Odyssey, by LaVonne Misner, is available through University Bookstores, 1-612-626-0559, ProStar Publications, Inc./Lighthouse Press; ISBN 1577852982; 358pp.; $27.95 hardcover.