 Lewis spent some of his later years conducting research into traditional navigation techniques of the Inuit on the Bering Strait region.One obituary said of Lewis that he “always brought his crews home intact.He was a typical Polynesian sailor, getting into trouble through haste and neglect, then, with near superhuman courage and seamanship, fighting his way out of it.”

Following this, he retired to New Zealand to write his autobiography, "Shapes on the Wind"; one of 12 books he wrote.