In the summer of 2008 I enlisted in the US Coast Guard and moved from Southern California to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. You ever been there? I recommend you bring a jacket. It's nice in the summer. In the winter, if it's a harsh one, you may spend a lot of time snowed in playing one-on-one Beer Pong with your roommate, or messaging girls on PlentyOfFish. So when I went home, two years later, for New Years, to party in the desert with all my old friends, I think it's safe to say that I might've overdid it. It took two years to get this book out: One year was spent writing it. The next year was...

The voyage about to be described was made last Autumn in a small Canoe, with a double paddle and sails, which the writer managed alone. The route led sometimes over mountains and through forests and plains, where the boat had to be carried or dragged. The waters navigated were as follows: The Rivers Thames, Sambre, Meuse, Rhine, Main, Danube, Reuss, Aar, Ill, Moselle, Meurthe, Marne, and Seine. The Lakes Titisee, Constance, Unter See, Zurich, Zug, and Lucerne, together with six canals in Belgium and France, and two expeditions in the open sea of the British Channel. The object of this book is...