Traveling can open our eyes and minds to new cultures and experiences, and for licensed captain Gill Terry Causey, traveling by sailboat has also guided him toward profound personal discoveries through the self-realization and introspection that seafaring can inspire.

Sailing “is the most rewarding and fulfilling way to travel, and these experiences have been both transformational and even transcendental,” Causey said. “It has taught me to unplug, discover and explore other awe-inspiring worlds.”

Causey’s book, “Let the Wind Carry Me: How Curiosity Can Open Doors of Perception and Learning,” is part autobiography, part detailed travelogue, and part pictorial of Causey’s worldwide sailing adventures. He shares vivid details (and more than 50 photos) from some of his most memorable excursions, and peppers his narrative with personal insights and reflections on the seeds planted early in his youth that inspired him to explore a world without boundaries.

Readers can experience the exact moment when he fell in love with blue-water sailing and hop on board as he runs a successful charter boat in Hawaii, explores South America and the Amazon forest, embarks on adventures in Central America, and sails the islands of French Polynesia. In all, Causey completed hundreds of inter-island sails, including 12 to French Polynesia, 11 to the Line Islands (a chain of atolls and coral islands in the central Pacific Ocean), seven around New Zealand, three to Australia, five sails to Fiji, and one sail each to the Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands.

“Sailing has transformed my life because I’ve been able to travel to places that are best seen by sailboat,” Causey said. “It’s a way of life that I have always embraced.”

“Let the Wind Carry Me” is Causey’s story, one he hopes will inspire others to explore and embrace the transformational power of travel.

Causey is a lifelong ocean-cruising sailor and a patron of maritime causes and projects from Hawaii (where he lived for more than half his life) to California. He is a licensed captain of a 50-foot sailing vessel that was built by the German navy in 1928. The vessel is iron-riveted and does oceanographic work for the University of Hawaii, the University of Cambridge, and the U.S. Department of the Interior. He also dedicates his time to many other projects, including the Sea Cadets, and he continues to be a significant benefactor to Call of the Sea (https://callofthesea.org/), a non-profit organization that gives children opportunities to sail and access to marine-based education.

He worked with the Polynesian Voyaging Society to revive their sailing culture, and he funded and supported the building of the 135-foot Brigantine Matthew Turner in Sausalito, Calif. The ship was recently certified by the U.S. Coast Guard as a school ship, which will be used to educate and inspire young people.

Causey retired in order to take care of his mother and relocated the family home to Newport Beach, Calif. But he still takes every opportunity to be on the ocean, enjoying what he calls the wonders of its cosmic power.