As the '60's come to an end, Skip Maggard trades his Palm Beach beauty salon for a trout farm in the Great Smoky Mountains. Not necessarily a lateral career move. Escapism? Undoubtedly. His reedy son dives in head first, delighting in the red earth between his toes, imagining himself to be the reincarnated Davy Crockett, bending his ear to the ground to hear the spirits of the woods. Forty years later, he trades his high tech career for a sailboat and sails from San Francisco to New Zealand. Escapism, again? Certainly not. It is a journey with a definite purpose, a search for a quiet mind on an endless sea.