In 1940, Steinbeck and the biologist Edward F. Ricketts ventured aboard the Western Flyer, a sardine boat out of Monterey, California, on a 4,000 mile voyage around the Baja peninsula into the Sea of Cortez. This exciting, day-by-day account of their expedition wonderfully combines science, philosophy, and high-spirited adventure, and provides a much fuller picture of Steinbeck — and his beliefs about man and the world than any of his fictional works.