Signed copy of Arctic Solitaire: A Boat, A Bay, and the Quest for the Perfect Bear, autographed by the author Paul Souders and sent via USPS or FedEx Gound.
arctic solitaire: a boat, a bay, and the quest for the perfect bear
THE BOOK
Winner of the 2019 Washington State Book Award for Best Memoir, Arctic Solitaire: A Boat, A Bay, and the Quest for the Perfect Bear was published by Mountaineers Books to rapturous reviews. This 304-page hardcover book with dust jacket and dozens of photographs can be ordered from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, Mountaineers Books, and signed editions are available direct from the author.
“At its heart, Arctic Solitaire is both a paean and a caution to following one's passion to the ends of the earth. Few of us would push so far in pursuit of something as ethereal as a photograph, and fewer would attempt it alone. Souders illuminates what it is to follow a dream to extremes, and he does this with humor, humility, and, in the end, some serious thinking about what is most important in life.”
Nancy Lord, Anchorage Daily News
THE STORY
Photographer Paul Souders considered himself a lucky guy. He traveled the world and got paid to take pictures. Yet at age fifty he seemed an unlikely explorer. Recently married, he was leading a generally contented life as an urban homebody, ending most days with a cold martini and a home-cooked meal. So how did he find himself alone aboard a tiny boat, enduring bad weather and worse cooking, while struggling to find his way across more than a thousand miles of of Hudson Bay?
It was all for a picture. He dreamed of photographing the Arctic’s most iconic animal, the polar bear, in its natural habitat. It was a seemingly simple plan: Haul a 22-foot fishing boat northeast a few thousand miles, launch, and shoot the perfect polar bear photo. After an inauspicious start and endless days spent driving to the end of northern Canada’s road system, he backed his boat, improbably named C-Sick, into a small tributary of Hudson Bay. Battered by winds and plagued by questionable navigation, Paul slowly motored C-Sick north in the hopes of finding the melting summer ice that should be home to more than a thousand polar bears. He struggled along for weeks, grounding on rocks, hiding from storms, and stopping in isolated Inuit villages, until finally, he found the ice and the world was transformed. The ice had brought hundreds of walrus into the bay and dozens of polar bears arrived to hunt and feed. For a few magical days, he was surrounded by incredible wildlife photo ops . He was hooked.
A hilarious and evocative misadventure, Arctic Solitaire shares Paul Souders exploits across four summers, thousands of miles of a vast inland sea, and the unpredictable Arctic wilderness—and also offers an insightful look at what compels a person to embark on adventure. The accompanying images of the landscape, people, and wildlife of the remote Hudson Bay region are, in a word, stunning.
The Boat
I bought the first boat I set eyes on. Her owner, Pastor Kirby, had christened her, in a demonstration of Lutheran humor, “C-Sick.” He let me take her out for a white-knuckle test drive on Puget Sound. That I didn’t sink the boat and drown us both I attribute to the power of his silent, fervent prayers. He carefully explained that she was in pristine condition, with low hours and two spotless Honda outboard engines. I half expected the good pastor to tell me he’d only driven her to church on Sundays. I was fish on; he barely had to reel me in. I paid full asking price, far more than she was worth, but you can’t stop love.
The C-Dory seemed to me the personification of a Maine lobsterman’s boat that had been softened by years of boring office work and life’s heavy burdens--a mortgage, maybe some child support--but still tried to keep up with the old gang out on the water every weekend.
Her builders had managed to fit all the necessities of shelter within this space: a combination two-burner stove and heater, and an eighteen-gallon freshwater tank that fed the stainless steel sink and faucet through a small foot pump. The table dropped down to fit between two simple bench seats and created an austere sleeping berth. She had a tiny icebox big enough for a couple six-packs under the captain’s chair, and she came with a tiny, portable flush toilet crammed in behind a privacy curtain, that I replaced, in a fit of Luddite primitivism, with a simple five-gallon bucket.
They even thought to include a drink holder, sized to the exact dimensions of a beer can. Proper hydration is the key to any successful boating experience.
From Arctic Solitaire: A Boat, A Bay, and the Quest for the Perfect Bear
The Trip
I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I am the luckiest of men. Pretty much my whole life, I got paid to take pictures. But after 30 or 40 years at it, I started to see that all the easy pictures had been taken. Still, I’m here to tell you there’s still some stupid and crazy ones left out there.
Arctic Solitaire is the story of going a little off the deep end and spending four summers along, chasing one of the craziest pictures of all. Searching for the perfect polar bear.
My journeys began as something of a lark, an almost childish notion that I could walk out my front door and travel overland and alone to the shores of a mysterious sea, then wander off by boat to see wild animals and have some adventures.
As to whether any of this was possible, advisable or even strictly legal, I didn’t think to ask.
Over the course of four summers from 2012 to 2015, I traveled thousands of miles of isolated and dangerous water along Hudson Bay’s western coast aboard a 22-foot cabin cruiser named C-Sick. I went to photograph polar bears in the wild.
That I made it back at all speaks more to dumb luck and the unseen hand of a kind and forgiving deity than it does to my own meager skills.
THE PICTURES
