Watching for Mermaids

As a young boy, rounding a bend in a remote Maine cove, Dave Roper stumbled upon two mermaids. No one believed him then. No one believes him now. But he kept watching and wondering: what is imagined and what is real? And while he watched and wondered during 50 years of waterborne life – as a boy, a teen, an adult, a father – what he pulled from the sea was not another mermaid, but the mystery, possibility, romance, joy, fear, and uncertainty that mermaids represent. Based on real experiences, these 30 stories take you on that journey. Once aboard you will: Share the fantasy world of a teenage solo cruising sailor as he meets his biggest challenge: a 22 year old woman. Enter the frenzied mind of a young man who falls overboard 300 miles from shore at night and looks death in the eye. Push down a few beers with Big Red, a legendary Mississippi River pilot, and experience the hard-scrabble world of river life. Climb aboard a 135 foot Mississippi River sternwheeler headed straight into a tornado, with 300 oblivious wedding guests on board. Join a young delivery skipper as he takes two very uncertain aspiring voyagers on world’s shortest circumnavigation attempt… aboard a floating Winnebago. Probe deep up a saltwater creek to meet the reclusive King of Yurtdom and his technology-free world of Mongolian tribal huts. Experience a 50th wedding anniversary at sea and a coincidence right out of the Twilight Zone. Cheer for an octogenarian as his grandson kidnaps him from the clutches of a nursing home for one long last sail on his old wooden sloop. So fill your favorite mug, settle into that stuffed reading chair, poke the stove a few times, and dive into Dave Roper’s new book, Watching for Mermaids.

From the author: The writing of Watching for Mermaids actually began under the Wabasha Avenue Bridge on a houseboat named The Ark on the Mississippi River in St. Paul Minnesota on a Sunday morning in 1978. Odd place to start writing about mermaids. Odd thing to have seen: mermaids. But from that sighting in 1959 (when I was nine) until today I have been wondering and watching during my life on the water, whether sailing through the Bermuda Triangle while delivering a boat to the Caribbean, navigating between large barges on the Upper Mississippi, sailing three film makers across Lake Superior, or cruising with my wife and children back to Maine, the place where I first saw the mermaids. Along with these water-borne experiences came the stories of people, places and strange situations that became this book. I have been writing sea tales for as long as I can remember. I wrote The Truth About Mermaids story in 1978 while in my twenties; the last piece in the book, Watching for Zephyrs, I wrote in 2010, when I was sixty. It's been a long swim. And I'm still watching. about the author: Dave Roper has been a professional writer and speaker for over 25 years. Next to sailing, telling and writing ocean tales is his favorite pastime. His new book, Watching for Mermaids (Points East Publishing, Inc.), will be available January 2012. His writing has been published in eighteen languages. Author of the Time Warner book Getting the Job You Want Now!, Dave is also a regular columnist for Points East Magazine and has written numerous feature sea stories for Cruising World, DownEast Guide, Lakeland Boating, Sail, Sailing, Reader's Digest, and written for The Wall Street Journal's National Business Employment Weekly. Dave has been a yacht delivery skipper, captain of a 135' Mississippi River sternwheel cruise ship, and life-long cruiser along the coast of Maine, most recently aboard his 31' Independence sloop, Elsa Marie. Dave is also the founder and director of A-Script, a career advisory and resume writing firm located in Marblehead, MA since 1982.