Tamar at Sea: A Memoir

Tamar at Sea is a heroine’s journey, a memoir conjured from journal entries and reflections of an adventure lived more than fifty years ago. After a magical and privileged childhood on the shores of the Pacific Northwest, Tamar Griggs came of age confronted by tragedy and psychological complexities that seemed to her nearly impossible to understand or overcome. In the summer of 1968, when Tamar was a young adult studying art and dance in New York City, she accepted an invitation for a short sailing holiday in the Mediterranean. Much to her surprise, that brief respite would lead to a year at sea, complete with a shipwreck on the coast of Spain and hitchhiking across the Atlantic Ocean. Carried by three different boats across thousands of nautical miles, she found herself hurled into trouble, doubt, beauty, laughter, and conversations with the dead. As she sailed along, Tamar simultaneously made her way through a parallel inner journey, confronting darkness and secrets that had haunted her life, and challenged her relationships, keeping joy at bay.