For him, every morning is a wonder and every storm a blood-coursing thrill.īut while Daniel loves this permanent boy's life, his wife longs for the life they left behind, and his spirited stepson is feeling isolated. He generates electricity from solar power and a terrifying windmill, funnels rainwater for their showers, creates a toilet seat out of a whale vertebra, strings their bed up on pulleys so that by day it can be lifted out of the way. And Daniel Hays, as readers of My Old Man and the Sea will remember, is well equipped to do both. This is the story of fulfilling a fantasy: to live by your own rules and your own wits. So he took his love for the sea and his need to escape civilization and pushed it further: he bought an island off the coast of Nova Scotia built a tiny house packed up his wife and stepson, two dogs, and three boatloads of supplies and moved there. He went back to school, bought a house, took a job, got married.īut as it turned out, in the real world Daniel Hays felt lost. Soon, their Swiss Family Robinson existence becomes a vision only Daniel can see.įunny, tender, and fascinating, filled with the details of an unconventional life, this is the story of how the Hays family lived on Whale Island, and how, finally, they had to leave.After Daniel Hays and his father built a twenty-five-foot boat and sailed it around Cape Horn, he thought he'd finally put his wanderlust to rest. For him, every morning is a wonder and every storm a blood-coursing thrill.īut while Daniel loves this simple life in the wilderness, his wife longs for the world they left behind, and his spirited stepson is feeling isolated.

Taking Thoreau’s ideal of self-sufficiency to heart, Daniel generates electricity from solar power and a terrifying windmill, funnels rainwater for their showers, creates a toilet seat out of a whale vertebra, and strings their bed up on pulleys so that by day it can be lifted out of the way.

This is the true story of fulfilling a fantasy: to live by your own rules and your own wits. Yearning to escape civilization and find a new adventure, he bought an island off the coast of Nova Scotia built a tiny house packed up his wife and stepson, two dogs, and three boatloads of supplies and moved there. But as it turned out, in the “real world,” he just felt lost. He bought a house, took a job, and got married. A memoir of a year spent on a deserted island off Nova Scotia, from the New York Times–bestselling author of My Old Man and the Sea.Īfter Daniel Hays and his father built a twenty-five-foot boat and sailed it around Cape Horn, he thought he’d finally put his wanderlust to rest.

On Whale Island by Daniel Hays