Williwaw Winds

Watch for:
Trouble at
Fish Camp
Book Two of
“Ways of the Williwaw”

      “Mayday, Mayday!” the skipper shouts. “We’re on our side. Waves are sixteen feet and coming close together.”
   Jake can barely hear the skipper’s words in the roaring wind. Will the Coast Guard answer the distress call? Did they even receive it?
   The boat rolls on its side and the power goes off. The skipper slams the microphone on the dashboard. “Radio’s gone. Everything’s gone.”
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   WILLIWAW WINDS is a tale of disaster based on the true story of how my son and four others were rescued by the Coast Guard while returning from a crab fishing trip in Alaskan waters. WILLIWAWS are violent winds that sweep across the Bering Sea and gain speed and strength as they go up the Alaska mountains and plunge into the sea. Such is the setting for my story.
   Jake, 16, struggles with more than williwaws during his first crab fishing trip. He’s angry at his dad for caring more about his paralyzed sister than about him. He’s angry with God for causing her accident. He’s angry at a fellow crewman for relentlessly taunting him. And he’s angry with himself for running from home responsibilities.
    But facing williwaw winds changes his anger to fear and changes his view about God. How will he and the others survive the raging seas?
    WILLIWAW WINDS is for anyone over 8 years old.
    If you love the adventure, excitement, and inspiration of a good story, you’ll love WILLIWAW WINDS.

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“Author Sally Bair brings a sense of rare high adventure and struggle against the cold, cruel sea to her new novel, Williwaw Winds, a reality-based, seafaring coming-of-age tale … she is a storyteller by inclination, and brings a keen observational eye to both the nuts and bolts of crab fishing and the character of the men who go down to the sea in ships to pursue the ‘Most Dangerous Catch.’ … when the crew must rely on a thin rubber raft at the mercy of a savage sea it is a test of faith, of character—a test to break a young boy or make him a man. … The slender 104-page tale is a sea story worthy of Jack London, but…there is much more here than a yarn of misadventure. … There is a depth of spirituality in her writing that isn’t heavy-handed or preachy … If there is any failing in Bair’s tale, it is that 104 pages is far too short a time to spend in Jake Bergren’s world.”

(by Rick Olivo, The Daily Press, Ashland WI 10/13/09)

“I couldn’t stop reading once I’d started—such a good story. The detail of how they caught the crabs … all the details add such depth and put the reader right there in the boat. Great job!”
(Cleo, fellow student of Writer’s Online Workshop)

“What an exciting story! It’s full of lessons that come across well, not preachy. Your descriptions are well done; I started feeling sea sick just reading it.”
(Diana, another student of Writer’s Online Workshop)

“An inspiring tale. Keeps you on the edge of your seat as you watch a boy come of age.”
(Boyd Sutton, Editor, The Wis. Writers’ Journal)

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