For you old timers who met and paddled with Ed Gillet or those who heard of the legend (the only kayaker to cross from the mainland to Maui, in 1987!), Dave Shively, the longtime managing editor of Canoe & Kayak and senior editor of SUP magazine, wrote up his story using interviews and Ed’s journal.  It was such an amazing crossing and he barely survived.

In the summer of 1987, Ed Gillet achieved what no person has accomplished before or since, a solo crossing from California to Hawaii by kayak. Gillet, at the age of 36 an accomplished sailor and paddler, navigated by sextant and always knew his position within a few miles. Still, Gillet underestimated the abuse his body would take from the relentless, pounding, swells of the Pacific, and early into his voyage he was covered with salt water sores and found that he could find no comfortable position for sitting or sleeping. Along the way, he endured a broken rudder, among other calamities, but at last reached Maui on his 63^rd day at sea, four days after his food had run out. Dave Shively brings Gillet’s remarkable story to life in this gripping narrative, based on exclusive access to Gillet’s logs as well as interviews with the legendary paddler himself.

Available at amazon.com

For more about this book, the San Diego Union-Tribune has this article.