Michael Walsh was born during World War Two on Canada's east coast. He joined the Air Force after school and trained as a pilot, moved to the west coast, discovered mountains, and made a name for himself as an exploratory mountaineer. Then restless, he transferred to the Navy to captain ships. A dozen years later, still restless, he resigned his commission to expand his wine importing business and to pursue his passions, becoming a wine and food writer and educator and Canada's chief coin geek. Restless again, he sailed off and rounded Cape Horn. Twice.

The past few years he's lived aboard Zonder Zorg, a restored 1908 Friesian skûtsje, as he explores the European canals trying to sort out what to do when he grows up. Meanwhile, he's gone back to writing, and after four nonfiction books on boating, he's turned to fiction.