Alex Ellison: A Young Sailor’s Memoir and Lessons from a Five-Year Voyage

It’s rare to meet an author who is still a teenager, but Alex Ellison is an uncommon case. He won’t turn 17 until August, yet he has already lived through an extended, formative journey at sea. Between ages 8 and 13 he and his family spent five years traveling, cruising and living abroad, experiences he later shaped into the memoir A Star to Sail Her By.

In 2003, when Alex was eight, his family left their home in Essex, Connecticut, for what was meant to be a yearlong sabbatical aboard Promise, a Beneteau 473. The sabbatical stretched into an 18-month cruise of the Caribbean, three years living on the island of Nevis, and a six-month Pacific crossing—about 25,000 nautical miles in all. Those years of life at sea and in foreign communities provided the raw material for Alex’s book, which he wrote from the detailed daily journals he kept while underway.

Alex’s parents, both physicians, embraced a lifestyle that exposed their children to different cultures and environments. In the book’s preface, his mother Marybeth Ellison explains that she and Alex’s father, Lee, wanted their children to see the “tapestry of humanity” and to grow into citizens of the world. The family had prior experience living off the beaten path—Lee served as a Peace Corps doctor in Malawi, and Marybeth worked at the National Institutes of Health in Ghana—and they brought that spirit to their decision to sail and live abroad.

The result was more than an extended vacation: it became a hands-on education in seamanship, resilience and resourcefulness. Even at 12 or 13, Alex found himself learning to troubleshoot real mechanical problems at sea. He recalls repairing a leaky fuel line during a Pacific passage with a tropical storm approaching—an improvised fix that relied on what they had aboard rather than a full toolkit. Those moments led to a larger lesson: how to methodically assess a problem, identify the root cause and devise practical solutions with limited resources.

Living on a boat also taught Alex to be frugal and deliberate about consumables—food, water and electricity—and to work closely with family members as a team. Long passages, shifting weather, and changing plans taught him that goals are often waypoint-like: you aim for them, but you adjust as reality intervenes. The experience sharpened his ability to stay levelheaded under pressure and reinforced the importance of cooperation—on a boat, not getting along really isn’t an option.

Those lessons were balanced by moments that revealed life’s fragility. At age ten, while swimming in a waterfall pool in Grenada, Alex contracted leptospirosis through a cut on his foot. The infection was serious enough that he required a medevac back to the United States for treatment. “I would have died had I not come back to this country,” he later reflected. Such an episode reinforced a sober understanding of vulnerability while also showing how much the human body and mind can endure.

Despite the medical scare, Alex sees the voyage as a defining chapter in his life. He describes himself as poised and thoughtful, and his writing carries the reflective tone of someone who has weighed risks and learned from them. He plans to continue studying and hopes to major in writing in college, possibly combining it with math, physics and computer science—fields that reflect his interest in programming as well as narrative craft.

Although the family no longer owns a boat, Alex intends to keep sailing. He says he hopes his first home someday will be a boat, a sign that those formative years created a lasting attachment to life under sail. His memoir offers a readable blend of travel writing, youth perspective and practical seamanship—appealing to readers interested in sailing memoirs, youth travel experiences, and stories about family life on the water.

“A Star to Sail Her By” brings together scenes of island life, open-ocean passages and the everyday maintenance of living aboard, all filtered through the voice of a young author who learned early how to confront problems, adapt to unexpected hardships and appreciate the world’s variety. The book grew out of journals kept during the voyage and presents a candid, steady-eyed account rather than boastful adventure tales.

“A tourist remains an outsider throughout his visit, but a sailor is part of the local scene from the moment he arrives.” – Ann Davison

This article originally appeared in the August 2011 issue.