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Dawn Treader Voyages
C. S. Lewis Study Tour and Cruise
August 16 - 26 or 29, 2004

Aboard the Exlusively Chartered Sailing Yacht, Sea Cloud II
Voyaging to Belfast * Dublin * Waterford * Cork * Wales * the Scilly Islands * Portland * Weymouth * Wells * Bath
With an Optional Extension to Oxford and the Cotswolds

Your Invitation
…from First Century Voyagess

The summer or 2004 will see our specialty travel company reaching a milestone of sorts…filling our 50th private ship charter. When we began thirteen years ago, our desire was to offer thoughtful Christian travelers unique itineraries customized around subjects of spiritual interest - “vacations with a purpose” we like to call them.

A part of the inspiration behind our company was a trip my wife and I had taken to Oxford in 1988. The C.S. Lewis Foundation of Redlands, California, and its visionary President, Stan Mattson, had organized a richly-resourced conference designed to deepen interest in C.S. Lewis. The program components Stan assembled were world-class.The fellowship among participants was both warm and stimulating. And, of course, convening in Lewis’ beloved Oxford added immeasurably to the learning experience.

Fast-forward now sixteen summers and we are delighted to combine Stan’s lifelong commitment to advancing the legacy of Lewis with our own years of experience in exclusively chartering the world’s most beautiful sailing yachts. We believe the co-operation, mixed with our sterling UK connections, will produce a most exciting travel opportunity. Call us today at (919) 933-7674 to secure your cabin on the Sea Cloud II. With only 44 passenger staterooms, we expect the sailing to sell out quickly.

David A. Spence, President
First Century Voyagess

…and the C.S. Lewis Foundation

When David Spence, President of First Century Voyagess and a longtime friend, first contacted me to explore the possibility of collaborating on a truly unique C.S. Lewis study cruise aboard the Sea Cloud II, I was deeply honored and unabashedly overjoyed. I was honored because of the distinguished reputation of First Century Voyages for providing among the very finest educational cruises available on the planet. And I was overjoyed at the prospect of sailing the waters of England, Ireland and Wales aboard the magnificent Sea Cloud II, visiting ports well known to C.S. Lewis, while venturing to discover little known aspects of Lewis’ early roots in Ireland. As an avid sailor, it had long been a distant dream of mine to initiate a series of small-ship cruises, treating different aspects of Lewis’ spiritual and intellectual odyssey. With David Spence’s call, the dream came closer to reality and, with it, the privilege of inviting you to join my wife, Jean, and me, for our inaugural “Dawn Treader Voyages” aboard the Sea Cloud II. To my even greater delight, Lewis’ stepson, Douglas Gresham (himself a sailor of the first order), and his wife, Merrie, will be sailing with us, together with other special guests.

As you peruse the following pages, I believe you will come to share my enthusiasm for this truly extraordinary adventure. The setting, needless to say, is perfect; the subject both substantive and genuinely nourishing to mind and spirit; and the intimacy of a cruise aboard the lovely Sea Cloud II something quite unique in the cruising world where “companions” numbering in the thousands tend to be the norm. For deep repose, renewal, and the splendor of an unforgettable Voyage in the good company of fellow “Inklings,” this experience is simply not to be missed. We look forward to welcoming you aboard.

Stan Mattson, Founder and President
C.S. Lewis Foundation