Cold Oceans

I remembered only the pleasures of adven-ture and the considerable gains which my travels earned me, and once again longed to sail new seas and explore new land.
--Tales From the Thousand and One Nights, author unknown, translated by N. J. Dawood

An evocative and mesmerizing page-turner, Cold Oceans is the thrilling story of Jon Turk's expeditions to some of the most inhospitable regions on earth. Even after being shipwrecked off Cape Horn, stopped by ice in the Northwest Passage, and beaten back by Arctic blizzards, Turk has continued to follow an irresistible urge to explore.

Guided by his restless spirit and fueled by tales of Elizabethan explorers, Turk first heads off alone to kayak around Cape Horn. But while he is paddling through the rain and mists, a racing storm scuttles his plans. On his next trip, he and his partner, Chris Seashore, attempt to row the Northwest Passage in a single season, but find themselves more often dragging than rowing their skiff through the half-frozen, gelatinous sea. Two years later, he attempts to run a dog team up the east coast of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, making his final camp beneath a wind-varnished iceberg locked into a frozen sea. On his last expedition, he's again joined by Chris (by now his wife) as they paddle sea kayaks along an ancient Inuit migration route from Ellesmere Island to Greenland. Following in the footsteps of old ways, and listening to the land, its people, journey.

Woven throughout the book is Jon and Chris's deepening relationship, and his reflections on the legendary explorers and adventurers who preceded him (Magellan, Frobisher, Amundsen, and others) and the aboriginal people who survived in these harsh lands. Turk writes with grace, humor, and assured knowledge of the Arctic landscape, capturing its beauty, power, vastness, and loneliness. His story is one of love, self-discovery, and his exuberant passion for wild places.