Float Plan

Finished February 27 

Float Plan by Trish Doller

This is my second book about sailing this year! This one is fiction. The main character here is Anna, a mid-twenties woman who works as a waitress at a pirate-themed restaurant in Florida. Less than a year ago, her fiance died by suicide and she's been grieving. His parents kicked her out of their shared apartment, which she couldn't have afforded on her own anyway, and she moved back into her mom's house and shares a room with her sister and niece. 

On the morning this story begins, an alert lit up her phone, reminding her that this was the day they were due to leave on a planned sailing trip through the Caribbean. It triggers something in her and she decides to do it. She gathers her stuff, shops quickly for supplies, does a quick clean of the sailboat (which was left to her in his will) and leaves.

She doesn't give notice at her job, and she doesn't tell her mom until after she's gone. But that first day (and night) of sailing has her realizing that she isn't experienced enough or confident enough to do some of the parts of this trip on her own, so she advertises for an experienced crew member. 

The guy that applies, Keane, has his own issues, but he's an excellent sailor and not only does the job, but teaches her the skills that she will need to continue on her own as well. 

I liked how Anna used the trip and the things that she had planned to do along it with her fiance to work through her grief and think about what she wanted for herself. Most of the trip had been planned by him, with her just acquiescing to his choices, so this is enlightening for her to find that she enjoys some of his choices and not others. It teaches her to trust herself, to know her own value and capabilities and to really think about her future more instead of just working in a dead-end job. 

It also highlights the world of sailing, the friendliness and camaraderie that exists, how people give advice, and help each other. She finds new friends, some through Keane and some on her own. 

At the beginning of the book she thinks she can't live without her lost love and in the journey of this novel she finds that she can, that she doesn't need anyone else, but sometimes she definitely wants a partner to share things with. 

It is a romance, but there is depth here as well.