The author, a former editor at The Surfer's Journal, envisioned a low-tech, self-reliant exploration for surf along the coast of Baja, using primarily gear available to his ancestors. Then he built the boat by hand in his garage. How his vision met reality - and how the two came to shape each other - places The Voyage of the Cormorant in the great American tradition of tales of life at sea, and what it has to teach us.