A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck

Let's be trendy! This book was one of 2025's most-read and recommended.

A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck
Author: Sophie Elmhirst
256 pages
Rating: 3.9 Goodreads

Summary: Maurice and Maralyn make an odd couple. He’s a loner, awkward and obsessive; she’s charismatic and ambitious. But they share a horror of wasting their lives. And they dream – as we all dream – of running away from it all. What if they quit their jobs, sold their house, bought a boat, and sailed away? Most of us begin and end with the daydream. But in June 1972, Maurice and Maralyn set sail. For nearly a year all went well, until deep in the Pacific, a breaching whale knocked a hole in their boat and it sank beneath the waves.

What ensues is a jaw-dropping fight to survive in the wild ocean, with little hope of rescue. Alone together for months in a tiny rubber raft, starving and exhausted, Maurice and Maralyn have to find not only ways to stay alive but ways to get along, as their inner demons emerge and their marriage is put to the greatest of tests.

We will meet at 7pm on Thursday, May 28 at:
Sugar House Park
1330 2100 S
Salt Lake City

-To the southeast of the basketball court and parking lot- in between the kids playground and Parley's Creek. (near Sugar Beet Pavilion- see pin on map)

- Please call or text Rachel at 949-285-3110 if you need help finding us or carrying anything.

- Bring your own chair, blanket, food, or drink!
I will be there early- I have short brown hair and glasses.