Gib's Odyssey

Book excerpt: Gib’s Odyssey is the true story of an extraordinary man, Gib Peters, and his solo journey along the Intracoastal Waterway from Key West to New York and back while suffering the ravages of Lou Gehrig’s disease. On an astonishing six-month voyage, Gib and his boat, Ka-Ching, encounter everything from an incompetent sailboat captain who lets his tow-rope wrap around Ka-Ching’s propellers and when he dives into the water to cut it loose accidently stabs himself with his knife, to the Navy and Coast Guard Zodiacs rushing to stop him from entering a naval bombardment zone. Gib carries out epic searches for his two kittens when they go AWOL at an Atlantic City marina and when one later falls overboard. All the while, he is forced to cope with increasing levels of paralysis, steering the boat home with his feet and unable to speak. Authored by Gib’s neurologist, Gib’s Odyssey is told in Gib’s own voice through a series of e-mails and articles he wrote for the Key West Citizen. Part travelogue, part soul-searching meditation, it is the uplifting and sometimes hilarious story of one man’s conquest of death and his profound insights into life.