I don’t read a lot of memoirs. But when I first saw Pam Rorke Levy’s Return to Blue Water, I was definitely curious—and quite intrigued by its coffee-table size and heft. I sailed with Pam in the 2014 Antigua Classics Week, but I never felt like I really got to know her. She died in 2024, so this book was my only chance to learn more.
Most memoirs are either a deep dive into the author’s past that makes their present (and future) seem like the only obvious choice, or a catalogue of regrets. Return to Blue Water somehow achieves both—while also deserving a place in any maritime historian’s library. A true genre-buster, as well as a darn entertaining read.
Not just about a boat
In 2010, Pam and husband Matt Brooks took on “Matt’s Crazy Idea:” to restore the 1929 sailing yacht Dorade, and then sail her in the classic bluewater races she’d contested in her youth. Designed by Olin Stephens when he was just 20 years old, the 52-foot yawl won both the 1931 Transatlantic and Fastnet Races. So those were put on the list, along with the Transpacific Race, which she’d won in 1936.
Offshore competition is well beyond typical expectations for a wooden boat in her ninth decade, but Pam and Matt were not typical boat owners. They basically learned to sail on Dorade, after bringing her back to full strength from what Pam calls a precipitous decline: “like an old lady who breaks her hip and is suddenly bedridden.” Along the way they also learned to fully trust each other, helping Pam finally move past a old trauma that she covers—without holding back—in the book’s prologue.
The early chapters intersperse stories of how Pam and Matt met with well-researched details about the childhood of Olin and Rod Stephens. Each one drops us right into the middle of a scene, a reminder of Pam’s award-winning career as TV writer and producer. And somehow the unlikely amalgamation of 1920s waterfront life with 21st century angst works, because it’s all leading us to the same place: a legendary yacht achieving her owner’s lofty goals.
History plus inspiration
I recommend this book for a wide variety of readers. Maritime historians will appreciate Pam’s well-researched and digestible details about the Stephens brothers and their first boat, while non-sailors will find inspiration and guidance about building supportive long-term relationships and overcoming trauma.
It will also appeal to casual boat gawkers. Though I learned to ignore the text callouts (an out-of-place distraction for those of us who devoured every word), they make it possible to get a quick sense of the story while paging through the photos.
More than ten years after my week with Pam on Dorade, I now feel like I better understand the quiet determination she brought to her role as owner and mizzen trimmer. I’m so glad that her memoir was published, because I believe she would be justifiably proud of what she and Matt and others achieved: a hard to categorize book that will make a unique addition to many, many bookshelves.
Purchase Return to Blue Water
Learn more about Dorade