Breaking Seas: An overweight, middle-aged computer nerd buys his first boat, quits his job, and sails off to adventure

FROM THE KIRKUS REVIEW: "As a writer, Damato makes his rehabilitation of the craft surprisingly interesting . . . his pithy prose keeps the story speeding along."

Do you have a dream to pursue but everyone says it's unrealistic? Or that you're not qualified? Too old, too out of shape? Or you don't have the "right experience?"

Glenn Damato was a forty-one year old software instructor who sought to exceed the bounds of his comfortable but humdrum existence. He embarked on an adventure for which he was miserably unprepared. Why do this? The goal was to become something he was not.

The "something" Damato strived to become was an ocean sailing skipper. Overweight and without boating experience of any kind, he decided to pursue his lifelong dream of sailing around the world on his own vessel.

Reckless? Dangerous? Idiotic? Call it what you will, Damato was determined to make the voyage a reality despite the obstacles.

Suddenly without the familiar security of his previous life, Damato was forced to conquer his anxieties while at the same time surviving the hazards and challenges of offshore sailing. As his experience and confidence mounts, he discovers he has indeed undergone a personal transformation - one quite different than he originally hoped, and in some ways worthier than he imagined.

Breaking Seas is a tale of ocean voyaging, but it's not just about sailing: the all-encompassing themes are rejection and disappointment - and our common human quest to get the most out of life despite being born into an imperfect universe.

Part sailing adventure, part philosophical pilgrimage, Breaking Seas is for everyone who's ever wanted to embark on an enterprise of some kind despite not meeting society's expected "qualifications."

"This is a story about our desire to be elsewhere, reborn and enhanced, because here and now are not enough," says Damato. "But don't expect a sugar-coated fairy tale with just what you want to hear. I promise you an honest story truthfully told."

Glenn Damato is a US Navy submarine veteran, private pilot and avid sailor and adventurer. He lives in Los Angeles. Breaking Seas is his first book.