Today we have Susan Cole in the house to speak about her book, Holding Fast. This book is tale of the Original Digital Nomads, living the dream of living aboard a sailboat and traveling the seas from the coastal Northeast down the coastal US throughout the Caribbean to Central America and back again. John Russel, Susan’s husband, was lead from childhood by an unwavering desire and commitment to living at sea, this is the dream they were following and wholeheartedly living. Eventually they would bring a child into the world, their daughter Kate, she too would live aboard their vessel, the Laughing Goat, and endure adventures that you can feel deep within your bones while reading the novel.
Susan’s ability to capture visceral sensations of tropical seas, the fury of storms equipped with mudslides is uncanny. I felt like I was there, smelling the smells feeling the winds and hearing the calls of the monkeys, I did not want to put it down.
Getting to sit down with Susan was an honor and a privilege, as always, she is my Brother in Law’s Mother iin Law ~ which gave us a good laugh ~ such a nice ring to it. Ha!
For those of you wanting a real life, epic adventure, that so many are portraying across platforms like Instagram, these are original Creative’s, waking up aboard their sailboat, hoping ashore to make their way to work, pitching original Lifestyle branding concepts to huge companies, then making their way back to their boat they called home on the wharf. Eventually they would be flying back and fourth from the Bahamas to Manhattan, even the remote jungles of Guatemala, back to the city to pitch another idea. We are talking the original digital nomads, pre internet.
This is a tail of life, lived to the fullest, following ones dreams, all the way to the end. It’s like having an inspirational “how to do life with a passion” on living your dream, on your bedside table.
Thank you Susan for writing this story. Thank you John for your passion expressed in devotion to the ocean. Thank you Kate for being my Sister-in-Law. Love to you all, Alex and Demian; the Brothers Reed who bring us all together.
Please enjoy, Susan Cole.
