BY CHUCK BAIER AND SUSAN LANDRY (BEACH HOUSE PUBLICATIONS, 2012; 154 PAGES; $24)
REVIEW BY JAMES WILLIAMS, S/V ALIZEE, 

“Do we need another book of anchorages along the ICW?” I asked myself this question several times after receiving The Great Book of Anchorages, and the answer still evades me. On my trips along the ICW, from the Chesapeake to Key West, I’ve used The Intracoastal Waterway Chart Book; Jack Dozier’s Waterway Guides; Skipper Bob’s Anchorages Along the Intracoastal Waterway, which now is in its 17th edition and published by Dozier; Maptech charts and their cruising guides; as well as Navionics electronic charts and, more recently, ActiveCaptain online. Frankly, there is no shortage of guides, and it’s hard to keep track of them. It turns out that much of the time motoring along the ICW is spent reading charts and guides, all the while running the risk of missing the trip.

BY DOINA CORNELL (CORNELL SAILING LTD., 2012; 224 PAGES; $19.95).
REVIEW BY CHAS. HAGUE

Jimmy Cornell Lived the Dream: While in England in 1974, he bought a bare hull, finished and outfitted it, then spent the next seven years sailing Aventura around the world.
This is not his story.

BY BENJAMIN ZARTMAN (AMAZON DIGITAL SERVICES, 2012; 707 KB; KINDLE EDITION, $9.99).
REVIEW BY JAJA MARTIN

In a world where the cruising boats seem to be getting larger, We Who Pass Like Foam by Ben Zartman is a welcome and refreshing insight into small boat cruising on a tight budget. With a minimal outpouring of cash, Ben and his wife, Danielle, use creativity and ingenuity to solve the myriad problems that beset them. Their combined endurance during difficult, uncomfortable passages strengthens their resolve to continue their adventure. When other cruisers tell them, “You’ll never be able to do that!” it increases their determination to succeed. 

BY RICHARD BEVAN (CHANGESTART PRESS, 2010; 136 PAGES; $9.95).
REVIEW BY SUSAN LYNN KINGSBURY, PORT 

Captain Charlie Tongue was looking for the “fresh perspective of a first-timer” when he asked Richard Bevan to take charge of the provisioning, manage the cooking, and write a blog while crewing onboard the Neroli of Fowey, a 1999 Hallberg Rassey 42. Bevan accepted the challenge to voyage from St Lucia to the Azores in May and June 2010 and shares all that he learned during that ocean crossing in The Galley Slave’s Handbook.

BY SANDRA CLAYTON (LONDON: ADLARD COLES NAUTICAL, 2012; 225 PAGES; $13.95)
REVIEW BY JAMES WILLIAMS

In 1998, Sandra and David Clayton decided to take early retirement in their fifties, buy a 40-foot catamaran and venture from the U.K. to the Mediterranean and beyond. Sandra kept a journal and wrote newsletters to friends tracing their travels from England via the coasts of France, Spain, and Portugal to the Mediterranean, all of which evolved into a well-received book entitled Dolphins Under My Bed (2008). After a year’s trial on their catamaran, Voyager, the Claytons decided to make permanent their life on the water.  Turtles in Our Wake (originally published in 2009 in the U.K. as Something of the Turtle), focuses on their second year, exploring the Mediterranean Sea and making their way to the Madiera Islands in preparation for crossing the Atlantic Ocean. 

BY JIMMY CORNELL (CORNELL SAILING, LTD., DISTRIBUTED IN NORTH AMERICA BY PARADISE CAY PUBLICATIONS, 2012; 342 PAGES; $49.95.)
REVIEW BY BRIAN KOGER,

Buying, studying, and carrying this book on board should be mandatory for anyone contemplating a long-distance voyage on any of the world’s oceans. Jimmy Cornell definitely knows his stuff. Over the past few decades, he and his family have made numerous trips all over the world. Additionally, for this book he also asked almost 60 other highly-experienced cruisers for input and incorporated their knowledge into practical ideas for planning, preparation, and — perhaps most importantly — actually getting out there and sailing to those distant locations most of us just dream about.

BY BRENDAN HALL, FOREWORD BY SIR ROBIN KNOX-JOHNSTON (LONDON: ADLARD COLES NAUTICAL, 2012; 236 PAGES; $19.95)
REVIEW BY JAMES WILLIAMS

We all know that sailboat racing in any craft larger than a dingy is a team sport. The larger the boat, the greater number of crew and the more challenging the teamwork required to succeed. The first American recreational sailboat racing on New York Bay in the 1840s occurred on workboats called New York sloops. Twenty to 30-feet long with enormous rigs, they were ballasted with sandbags piled on the weather rail and took a crew of 10 to 15 to sail. Today, sailors aren’t hefting sandbags, but teamwork is still the foundation of successful racing.

BY BARBARA HART (HART ENTERPRISES, 2012; 246 PAGES; $12.99 PAPERBACK, $2.99 KINDLE EDITION)
REVIEW BY KAREN LARSON

When a very gregarious plugged-in woman agrees to go cruising with her husband for an indefinite period of time — alone, just the two of them on a sailboat — it must be all about love. In her book, Harts at Sea – Sailing to Windward, Barbara says she knew he was a Sailor (with a capital “S”) when she married Stewart:
“When he finally proposed to me after a game of darts in a Portland (Maine) bar, he qualified this already unromantic moment by stating, ‘Before you reply you need to know that someday I will have a sailboat and will sail around the world.'”

I cried. These were not tears of joy.

BY SUSAN PETERSON GATELEY (THE HISTORY PRESS, 2012; 128 PAGES; $19.99)
REVIEW BY CAROLYN CORBETT

Susan Peterson Gateley has written a jewel of a book for history buffs with maritime leanings. In the author’s words, Maritime Tales of Lake Ontario is a “collection of historic incidents and personalities who once worked on and by the waters of this Great Lake between 1728 and the present.” An abundance of pictures and illustrations accompany this well written and meticulously researched history of Lake Ontario, as Susan brings past ages to life.

BY LIN AND LARRY PARDEY, EDITED AND PRODUCED BY TORY SALVIA <HTTP://WWW.LANDLPARDEY.COM> OR <HTTP://WWW.THESAILINGCHANNEL.COM>), 65 MINUTES PLUS EXTRAS, $24.95 FOR DVD, $12.95 FOR DOWNLOAD
REVIEW BY KAREN LARSON

Lin and Larry Pardey’s newest video is another excellent production. These two have never done anything but top-notch books, videos, lecture series, presentations, and whatever else they decide to take on.

As the narrator, Lin explains that they cannot offer their very popular lectures everywhere in the country so they have decided to offer some of the highlights on video. The most frequently asked questions are consistently: How much does it cost to go cruising and how can we control those costs? Ergo, the theme of this video.

BY CLARENCE JONES (WINNING NEWS MEDIA, 2012; E-BOOK; 93 PAGES; KINDLE AND NOOK EDITIONS: $2.99).
REVIEW BY KAREN LARSON

Clarence Jones has always been a sailor and do-it-yourselfer. He describes himself as a writer/mechanic/inventor/tinkerer. Your choice. His inventions have been installed in a MacGregor 21 and 25, a Precision 18 and 21 and, most recently, a Catalina 28. He’s written several articles for Good Old Boat and more are in the hopper.

BY STEPHEN TAYLOR (W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, 2012; 368 PAGES; RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 15, 2012; $28.95 (HARDCOVER); $15.37 KINDLE EDITION, AVAILABLE OCTOBER 8; NOOK EDITION AVAILABLE OCTOBER 15.
REVIEW BY KAREN LARSON

Every so often, when reading fiction accounts of the Age of Fighting Sail in the late 1700s and early 1800s, you’ll come across the name of Sir Edward Pellew. He was a contemporary of Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson and — as author Stephen Taylor has convinced me —an equally important British naval officer, albeit one who never achieved the same star status.

BY JAMES BALDWIN; 2012 ATOM VOYAGES.COM; 370 PAGES
($9.95 PAPERBACK; HTTPS://WWW.CREATESPACE.COM/3786486;
$1.99 EBOOK FOR KINDLE; HTTP://WWW.AMAZON.COM/DP/B00738SYEG)

REVIEW BY KAREN LARSON

James Baldwin needs no introduction to most sailors. He’s the guy who went twice around in a modified Pearson Triton and now makes wonderful modifications to other people’s boats from a home base in Brunswick, Georgia. When we’re lucky, he writes about those refits for the readers of Good Old Boat.

BY JIMMY CORNELL (INTERNATIONAL MARINE/MCGRAW-HILL, 2010; 432 PAGES; $49.95)
REVIEW BY SUSAN LYNN KINGSBURY

… I realized with a pang of joy that in spite of all that has changed in the world … that a boat can still take you to places that have remained virtually untouched.
– Jimmy Cornell

Jimmy Cornell’s World Cruising Destinations is a valuable in-depth reference book written by an extremely knowledgeable and passionate sailor. Intent on providing readers the most pertinent information available, he succeeds in delivering a multitude of data in an organized volume, making it easy for cruisers, and those planning or even dreaming of sailing to the world’s cruising destinations, to plan their cruise, choose a destination, and begin preparing for the adventure.

BY ED MAPES (PARADISE CAY PUBLICATIONS, INC., 2010; 300 PAGES; $19.95)
REVIEW BY WAYNE GAGNON

There’s an old adage among pilots: “Those who have and those who will,” meaning that sooner or later, every pilot will come close to landing an airplane without extending the landing gear. Similarly, when it comes to spending time on boats, be it offshore passagemaking, fishing, or day sailing, eventually we’re all going to have some sort of emergency. Safer Offshore: Crisis Management and Emergency Repairs at Sea, by Ed Mapes, is another in a long list of books that deal with on-the-water emergencies. It’s quite evident early on that Mapes knows what he’s talking about and his 30-plus years of experience are clearly visible. His easy-to-read style makes this a very user-friendly book.

BY JIM WHIPPY (PARADISE CAY PUBLICATIONS, 2011; $9.95; 128 PAGES)
REVIEW BY WAYNE GAGNON

As a kid I was kind of a klutz. In fact, I can still hear my buddy Chuck calling out to me from second after yet another strikeout, “Wayne, I’ve never seen anyone as uncoordinated as you!” Almost 50 years later, I still have to laugh at Chuck’s honesty. When I was a Boy Scout we had to learn some basic knots, and that same lack of hand-eye coordination haunted me there too. I managed to learn a few and I was amazed to find that, after many years, I could still tie a bowline and whip the end of a rope. So when I was asked to review Reeds Knot Handbook I thought it was nothing less than karma.

BY PETER I. BERMAN (PARADISE CAY PUBLICATIONS, 2012; $19.95; 256 PAGES)
REVIEW BY KAREN LARSON

The subtitle, Refitting Used Sailboats for Blue-Water Voyaging, of Peter Berman’s new book, Outfitting the Offshore Cruising Sailboat, tells why it’s an important new reference for good old boaters. Peter’s basic premise is that new offshore cruising sailboats are prohibitively expensive and somewhat uncommon, while the market in used cruising sailboats is rich and vast and flourishing. There’s something there for everyone.

BY NADINE SLAVINSKI (SLAVINSKI-SCHWEITZER PRESS, 2ND EDITION, 2011; $26.95; 267 PAGES)
REVIEW BY CAROLYN CORBETT

Lesson Plans Ahoy! is an excellent educational guide for cruising families. Author Nadine Slavinski is a teacher, a parent, and a sailor, and has capitalized on her knowledge in each of those roles in this fine book. She has a master’s degree in education, has taught in international schools for 15 years, and took a year-long sailing sabbatical with her husband and 4-year-old son.

BY STEVE HENKEL (INTERNATIONAL MARINE/MCGRAW HILL, 2010; 412 PAGES; $29.95)
REVIEW BY PAUL MARAVELAS

Steve Henkel collected information for decades before compiling this fascinating compendium on fiberglass cruising sailboats sold in the U.S. Nearly all of the boats get a full page, with roughly half of each page devoted to plans. The 8½ x-11 inch format is large enough to make the plans accessible, and Henkel shows us a sail plan, a full hull profile from abeam, and an interior plan for each boat. Each review includes Henkel’s own opinion of the boat’s best and worst features, and data for several comparable boats. The book is organized in six sections, according to boat length, so comparison is easy. Henkel uses length on deck to categorize the boats.

BY JIM CARRIER (NEW WORD CITY, INC., 2011; 29 PAGES–EBOOK; $2.99)
REVIEW BY JAMES WILLIAMS

In his electronic book, Here We Are, Jim Carrier, author of several books including the well-received The Ship and the Storm about the 1998 loss of Windjammer Cruises’ 282-foot schooner Fantome to Hurricane Mitch, briefly recounts the history of the Navstar Global Positioning System, simply known today as GPS.

Appropriate to the electronic technology he describes, Carrier’s work is available only as an eBook and makes use of numerous links to online information. His links act in some ways as valuable footnotes, which should be the point of links in eBooks and online essays; however, I found that links to commonplace names such as “Columbus,” “sextant,” “Cold War,” and “Soviet Union” distracted my reading.

BY HERB MCCORMICK (PARADISE CAY PUBLICATIONS, 2011; 313 PAGES; $16.95)
REVIEW BY DAN SPURR

Herb McCormick and I wrote our first books together, after hours, banging away at IBM Selectric typewriters on the second floor of the old Cruising World offices in downtown Newport, Rhode Island. He and then-editor George Day were working on Out There, a fine narrative describing the first BOC Challenge singlehanded round-the-world race. Herb wasn’t too many years out of Williams College, where he starred as wide receiver on the school football team. He was not all that fast running in a straight line, but he was quick, and had great hands. Think Fred Biletnikoff from John Madden’s Oakland Raiders teams. If you’re not old enough to remember those great teams of the ’60s and ’70s, Wes Welker will do for now — short routes, quick moves, great hands.