The Log From The Sea of Cortez - A Maritime Memoir with Lasting Legacy

Two salty men combine their efforts to change the course of research and life as we know it. 

July 8, 2026

A year ago, my husband and I celebrated the news that he was accepted to go to one of the top Wooden Boat Building schools in the world. This was a dream and education he had chased for many years, and a passion since boyhood. Housing was challenging to find, but the way we have overcome this challenge is a story for another time as we decided to just do anything possible to make it happen.  

Eric has read many tales of sea adventures, and we have watched hours of our favorite Sailing Documentarians. Eric suggests books to me as he becomes connected to the stories and wants to share them with me. There was one book in particular that kept coming up. A story of new discovery and intellect. A story of trial, error, and accountability. An imperfect crew with an important mission. This book is The Log From The Sea of Cortez. 

There were two authors of The Sea  Cortez, Ed Ricketts (1897-1948) and John Steinbeck (1902-1968). Ricketts was an American marine biologist and ecologist who was eager to go out and study marine animals in their natural habitats. Plenty of fish, clams, and octopus had been collected and studied in a lab, but by the time the animal gets back to the lab, it is likely not a live specimen, and has likely changed color, smell, or other features. Ricketts wanted to go see the animals in their habitats; learn what habits the animals have and how they interact. Where the animals choose for shelter, when they are active, and who is predator… or prey. Ricketts wanted to explore what life was like in an area that had little human impact. Steinbeck was ready to bring his Novelist skills into a world of exploration with a true adventure story that features himself as the main character. His last book, The Grapes of Wrath, didn’t go so well, so it was time to pursue the other aspects of his passions. Steinbeck was a student of marine biology and was ready to build a perfectly imperfect crew to explore the Sea of Cortez. 

With the equal level of pursuit for knowledge and courageous curiosity, Ricketts, Steinbeck, and their crew chartered a boat, the only one that was crazy enough to rent it out to them. They acquired the 76 foot sardine fishing boat, Western Flyer. 

Ricketts logs the scientific findings, Steinbeck tells the stories of how the findings came to be. With this dual author approach, the reader gets to feel as though they are part of the research team, learning for the first time in written human history about sea otters and how they eat sea urchins, or attempting to harpoon a turtle for soup, only to learn more about watching the slow death of an animal that wasn’t meant to die at the hands of a human, and for the soup to be inedible anyway.  This combined style of authors and the exploration they carried is a graceful dance between dreamlands and facts, life and death, and physical and emotional exploration. All balanced from author to author, and expectations vs reality. 

The 1940 adventure on Western Flyer was 42 days. The crew left from California and explored south, straight into the Sea of Cortez, part of Mexico. These entries are filled with reflection and relate Steinbeck’s perspectives to the natural world he is observing. He is able to look inward and question his own impacts within the world, the environment, and the lives of these animals. He is critical of what their research processes are, and challenges future researchers to continue learning and finding best practices to do so. 

Steinbeck’s approach is admirable as these philosophies can only ever improve and we are able to make continuous efforts toward better practices and learning more. This call to action has spread over many generations and will continue to push people to deepen their understanding of the world around them, whether to better know the world, or better know themself.

While the 42 day research study in the Sea of Cortez was a thrown together crew on a loosely fit boat with varying experiences and more beer than water, it should not be mistaken for a spontaneous adventure of soul searching. Did that happen along the way? Sure. But through careful research and paying attention to this environment and studying exactly what they saw as they saw it, not guessing on why’s and what’s, but truly observing the creature, this group carried a slow cadence that allowed them the chance to experience something unique, and allowed them to learn more in one trip than what most researchers would ever learn in a lab alone. By the end of this trip, they had collected and learned about 900 different new species. 

Being a chartered boat, the crew was not able to make major changes to the vessel itself. Western Flyer, being a sardine fishing boat, had a large holding hull for the fish, which smelt horrible. The crew had wished this vessel could have been fitted as a floating lab to observe live specimens below deck. 85 years later, I got to board Western Flyer and see the floating classroom and research lab that has been built in the belly of Western Flyer. 

Click to play video

In 1940, Ricketts and Steinbeck didn’t know what they would find, they just knew someone needed to go out there and find it, and it might as well be them. In 2025 when my husband told me to read this book, I didn’t expect to be standing on that same ship just a year later, let alone having the lifelong impact of travel, a growing respect for the environment, and a trust that I don’t have to figure everything out, I can just observe it and absorb it. 

I am not alone in this experience, which is why the vessel was brought back to life beginning in 2015 when the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-Op took on the restoration of Western Flyer. This restoration took 9 years and involved many dedicated Maritime workers who are in an industry that is regaining traction through projects like this restoration, and through the efforts of organizations that use “powerful maritime experiences to educate, inspire people to adventure, and celebrate our maritime culture with a love of boats, in service to our community and maritime industry, because the sea is the most powerful teacher we know”. I proudly work at one of these organizations.

So anyways, I read my husband’s book recommendation and it changed my life. Not only for the science itself, but for my mindset and the value I see in, well, the sea.