Photo by Tim Hirsch

Author Sean Carlton will sign copies of his new narrative nonfiction book “Twenty Degrees” on April 25, starting at 6 p.m., at Twist Wine Co., 34930 Brooten Rd., Pacific City.

Survival Against All Odds

Carlton to hold book signing for ‘Twenty Degrees,’ a narrative nonfiction tale of one of the largest search
and rescue operations in Coast Guard history 

You may know him as one-half of the fine vino and fun atmosphere at Twist Wine Co., but making great wine is just part of his talents — and his story.

After hundreds of hours of research and more than a year devoted solely to writing, Sean Carlton is debuting his first book, a narrative nonfiction page-turner that paints a vivid picture of the untold true story of one of the largest search and rescue operations in Coast Guard history.

On Saturday, April 25, starting at 6 p.m., Carlton will hold an author signing and book release party for “Twenty Degrees” at Twist Wine Co., 34930 Brooten Rd., Pacific City. For more details, visit twistwine.com/twentydegrees.

The books is the culmination of his more than two-year research and writing effort to share the story of the harrowing journey and rescue that reunited him with his missing parents.

As well as signing books, Carlton plans to read an excerpt at the release party.

The new book shares the story of Sean’s dad and uncle, along with their spouses, departing Nantucket Island with the goal of reeling in some bluefish in the vicinity of Old Man Shoal. Navigating by compass, they enter a fogbank that blankets the island for eight days, persistent even by Nantucket standards.

Making some critical mistakes, the family runs out of gas as they attempt to return to the island. As the Coast Guard mounts a search that ultimately covers more than 25,000 square miles and reaches nearly three-quarters of the way to Nova Scotia, the family can hear their would-be rescuers but are helpless to do anything about it.

A nudge from the White House helps extend the search from 48 to 72 hours, and a newly fixed transistor radio alerts the family that the end of the search will coincide with a brewing storm. 

With less than two hours to spare and waves pounding against their hull, a Coast Guard Helicopter on the last leg of the last search of the day spots the missing boaters.

“Twenty Degrees” owes its impetus to Carlton’s uncle, Bill Carlton, who originally planned to write a novel about the incident, but encouraged Sean to take the project on. After his uncle passed away in 2021, Carlton’s aunt gave him all the research.

“I heard about the story a thousand times from my family, but when I went through all of this information, I thought: ‘there’s so much more to this story than I ever knew,’” he told the Sun. 

He adds that the biggest challenge was piecing the puzzle parts — consisting of interviews and Coast Guard reports — together of how his parents and family had gotten lost.

“That was a challenge,” he added. “It involved a lot of sort of latitude and longitude and map reading, and so that was a really interesting experience.”

One part of the process Carlton particularly enjoyed is researching what life was like in 1973 when the incident occurred.

“As I was trying to place this book in 1973 and understand what was going on at the time so I could have a better idea of what these characters were doing and feeling, I realized in January of ‘73, the Vietnam War ends, Roe v. Wade is decided, (and) we’ve got this massive, scandal involving White House tapes. Then, as we’re heading into the time of year that this (incident) happens, which is September, there are these little battles happening between Israel and Syria and Jordan, and, the Arab states. And there’s a gas shortage going on.

“It was almost cathartic, because the things that were happening in 1973 were things that were happening, again, as I was writing this book. You had all these crises going on. It made me realize, okay, these things that we’re going through now, these are the challenges that we’ve always gone through.”

Sean has been writing incessantly since the seventh grade. 

He was a columnist for his high school newspaper. “Funny Farm,” written about the experiences Sean and his wife Chenin had while running a 5-acre farm, was his first completed book and is tentatively scheduled for a fall 2027 release.

“(It’s a story about) our attempt at being farmers, (which) was incredibly comical,” Carlton told the Sun. “I had no idea what I was doing. Chenin grew up in 4-H, so she had a better idea, but we learned by trial and error, and there were a lot of errors.”

To purchase “Twenty Degrees” ($35) or learn more about Carlton, visit seancarltonauthor.com. The book is also availabe for puchase at Twist Wine Co.