At 51, Bill Martin Vivatson sailed from Ventura to Hawaii, navigating the next chapter in a life filled with adventure, opportunity and overcoming physical obstacles that might have stopped another man without the dreams, determination and will to take that next bold step into the unknown.

He physically departed Ventura County in 1977 aboard his Still Waters, a 30-foot ketch built to his specs in Plymouth, England, but Vivatson's legacy is firmly cemented here. His handiwork is visible in the 140 or so architectural gems he designed — and some that he built — at the Ventura Keys, Pierpont Beach, Oak View, Ojai and the Santa Rosa Valley.

Memories in his journal

Vivatson, who turned 82 on June 6, has chronicled his less-than-a-decade spent in the county, along with a lifetime of memories in a personal journal, "Life Is a Challenge Not a Pass," published by Binford & Mort Publishing of Portland, Ore.

A resident of Kona, Hawaii, for the 30 years since his "retirement," Vivatson will be in Ventura on Saturday for a book-signing at Barnes & Noble. The book is also available at Borders Books in Oxnard and Santa Barbara and at their Web sites, Abegnego (2682 E. Main St., Ventura) and Tecolote Book Shop in the upper village at Montecito.

The journal is written "to point the way for others to become achievers," Vivatson said in July from his home. "I want my story to be a challenge to those who have given up and those who might say, I don't have a chance.' "

Vivatson is still designing and building homes in Hawaii as well as promoting the first of three books he has penned. He and his wife, Jeanne, are going strong, although she is recuperating from knee replacement surgery, and he continues to cope with vision failure, multiple sclerosis and heart arrhythmia that has plagued him throughout his adult life.

The MS has played a role in Vivatson's life from the moment it hit with full fury and left him functionally blind and partially paralyzed in his mid-20s. Vivatson addresses his disappointments and his struggles to overcome the ravages of the illness, but without soliciting pity. Instead, he focuses on the accomplishments he credits to the grace of God, and on the many people who have crossed his path and influenced his life.

Born on a North Dakota farm

The pages of the journal move rapidly from Vivatson's humble beginnings on a small farm in Pembina County, North Dakota, his attempts to enlist during World War II only to be denied because of his ailments, to his civilian work on military aircraft. He spotlights teachers who made a difference and provided him with the tools of achievement, including a grade school teacher who taught him how to use hand tools and a high school principal who added a shop class and new dimensions to Vivatson's future.

His career successes are all the more amazing because he had no formal architectural training and only a high school diploma. In the book, Vivatson says his knack for designing a home or other buildings to fit the character and vision of his clients, "was a gift from the Lord and I cannot take credit for it."

Among his clients in Ventura was Dr. Jeffrey Leonard, neurologist, for whom Vivatson has designed several large homes, the last of which was a 3,500-square-foot-plus house in Ojai. Since then, Leonard and his wife have moved back to Ventura but remember Vivatson fondly. The couple rented a Vivatson-built apartment at the Ventura Keys when Leonard first came to Ventura in 1975 from Tucson, Ariz., fresh out of training.

"We came to know them (Bill and Jeanne) as outstanding human beings, honest and straightforward," Leonard said. He also was impressed with the architecturally superior workmanship in the apartment and several other Vivatson homes he visited. Interior layout and design were among Vivatson's trademarks.

"He was very clever with use of space. The more confined the space, the more incredible the job," Leonard recalled.

The neurologist found "Life's a Challenge" an exciting way "to look back at the way Ventura County was."

"I think it's a fabulous book. Bill has lived a more exciting life than anyone I've known."

Duplex designed 34 years ago

Among Vivatson's stable of designs was the duplex unit he built for Belva Norins in the Pierpont Beach neighborhood.

"He built this duplex 34 years ago, and I still live in it," Norins said. "It's been a wonderful home. Working with Bill was a joy." She, too, praised his book, saying it chronicles a "courageous and adventuresome life."

In addition to a plethora of homes and rental properties he built in Ventura for his family, when his two daughters were grown, he designed properties for them: Lauri Vivatson of Santa Barbara, who is the book's graphic artist; and Claire Gallion of Santa Ynez. He's also designed homes for the couple's adopted sons and their families — young men the Vivatsons met while working as lay missionaries in Thailand with refugees from the "killing fields" in Cambodia in late 1979-80.

The Thailand experience, soon after Vivatson's retirement, along with a subsequent disastrous one with a scam mission in Africa, also are included in the book, as is the sailing venture from Ventura to Hawaii, the journey that launched the formal end to his career at the age of 51.

The book is one of diversity and flashbacks. It addresses prejudices of the times, a personal spiritual awakening and a man's desire to share with others his road to success. Vivatson says he has always been filled with curiosity and enthusiasm and has strived to encourage those traits in others.

For Vivatson the author, "Life is a Challenge Not a Pass" is the first of three completed tomes. Next up, expected to be published in December, is "Bicycle Built for One," which chronicles Vivatson's experiences in his 60s and 70s traveling by bicycle throughout Europe. The third, geared for a 2008 publication, is "Dinosaurs and Humans: From Creation to Chaos."

"It follows Noah's family why we have drifted so far secular standpoints. It's very volatile, very controversial," Vivatson said. He's working on a fourth book, "The Joy of Sole Travel," about learning how to affect people's lives.

The latter should be an easy task for Vivatson, who continues to constantly be on the go and taking on new projects.

"He's high energy," that's for sure, Leonard said. "He gets more done in a year than most do in a lifetime."