Peter Bourke’s book, Sea Trials, is a beguiling read. Short chapters detail each of the 40 days he spent sailing the 2009 OSTAR, the Original (or Oldest) Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race. Not only do...
From the Introduction of Cruising Life: “It’s a collection of stories by “cruisers” — those free spirits traveling independently under sail.” Chosen from over 200 issues of Caribbean Compass magazine,...
Life Boat is a wonderful account of a sailing adventure founded on do-it-yourself ingenuity and a shoestring budget. I mean, imagine finding a one-hundred-year-old traditional ocean-lifesaving vessel ...
If you need a conversation starter aboard your boat or perhaps a thoughtful tidbit to share in the cockpit while waiting for the green flash, Stephen Brennan has put together a little book of sailing ...
NOT FOUND ON AMAZON PRODUCED BY BILL TRAVERS; 2014, 46 MINUTES, $15.00, CONTACT Larry Carpenter THROUGH FACEBOOK: REVIEW BY KAREN LARSON MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA The words of a song are spinning through...
In 2010, naval historian Sam Willis went to the British Library to do research for a book he was writing. One of the potential sources he wished to check had the innocuous catalog label “Add:232...
For anyone with an interest in the maritime history of the Northwest coast, this book will be a valuable addition to their library. The central focus is the mouth of the Columbia River. The Columbia R...
Prepare your nautical comfort zone for a jolt. In Sailing Down the Mountain, warm and fuzzy . . . and staid . . . conventional thoughts on sailing, construction and personal discovery are casually set...
NOT ON AMAZON (DOCUMENTARY FILM BY ERIC AND SUSAN HISCOCK PRODUCED IN 1963. RESTORED FROM 16MM PRINT BY THESAILINGCHANNEL TV. LENGTH: 91 MINUTES. RENT IT FOR $2.99 OR BUY IT FOR $12.99 FROM VIMEO, REV...
Chronicling a small pleasure boat’s challenging journey through the Northwest Passage, The Other Side of the Ice is a read that begins slowly but concludes with plenty of excitement. But unlike ...
This is probably the most difficult book I’ve ever been asked to review — three hundred pages comprised of two hundred stunning photographs. What can one say, especially when I cannot show...
The normal Atlantic hurricane season does not start until August, but “Climate is what we expect; weather is what we get.” In May 2007, two low-pressure centers spun together off Cape Hatt...
One of my favorite genres is historical fiction. Over the years I’ve read James A. Michener, Herman Wouk, C.S. Forrester, and many others, so when given the opportunity to review a work on the h...
“August 12th, 1983, was a day that Stewart Vogel had looked forward to with apprehensive anxiety.” So begins Paroled, by Charles Manion, the story of Vogel’s release after finishing ...
Vern Hobbs has done it again. In June 2010 we reported that Good Old Boat author Vern Hobbs had published his first book. While it was not exactly a sailing book, it was worth mentioning just the same...
When told by Herb McCormick, the lives of Lin and Larry Pardey have the makings of a good nautical soap opera. Herb is a storyteller of the first magnitude and Lin and Larry, who have led very dramati...
This article is relating to an article in the January 2014 issue. 1957 International Marine building wooden boats based on Herreshoff 28-foot design. Okamoto Shipyard building 35- and 40-foot wooden k...
In the 1980s, the development of the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) launched a revolution in marine navigation. Following Magellan Navigation’s first commercial handheld GPS in 1989, ...
I suppose every sailor has experienced it —those frustrating times when it seems the gods conspire to keep him or her at the dock. For me it had been several weeks of lawns to cut, gutters to clean, d...
A Thousand Miles From Anywhere is Sandra Clayton’s third book chronicling her passages with her husband David aboard Voyager, a cruising catamaran built by Solaris Yachts. The author provides readers ...
With the publication of his first book, Laurence Eubank has created an epic historical novel and launched a very promising writing career. Run Down the Wind intertwines the real people and historical ...
“My decision to embark had been the final expression of a boy’s will that his life should find some deeper meaning.” In his memoir, Once Upon A Gypsy Moon, Michael C. Hurley shares his deepest feeling...
BY WENDY HINMAN (SALSA PRESS, 2012, 374 PAGES; $14.95, $5.99 KINDLE) Neither a “How to go cruising” book, nor a “Fiji on fifty cents a day” book, Wendy Hinman’s Tightwads on the Loose is a great read....
When Mike Plant was 8, he learned to sail on Minnesota’s Lake Minnetonka. By 11, he’d designed and built his own boat. By 14, he was hiding bottles of bourbon. By 25, he was on the run for drug smuggl...
A few readers in the U.S. and Canada read Yachting Monthly magazine, which is published in the United Kingdom. But if you missed their eight-month-long Crash Test Boat series last year, you will want ...
Journalist and writer Matthew Shaer offers a short but interesting and well-written account of the 2012 loss of the Bounty, a replica of the British vessel of the same name whose crew famously mutinie...
Christina and Kirby Salisbury’s book is their love story with Belize and with Chance Along, the boat they built on her shores. The couple shares the telling of the story in alternate chapters. It is w...
This small book is the story of Joe, a Rhode Island fisherman who not long ago fell off his boat and treaded water and swam for 11 hours in the cold Atlantic before being rescued. No spoiler alert nee...
This Complete Guide just might surprise the word-weary voyager. Described as “An illustrated guide for beginner and expert alike,” a cursory glance could relegate it to the shelf of innumerable other ...
During the off season I read to wile away the hours, days, weeks, and months until I can once again feel the deck moving under my feet, the spray on my face, and hear the wind and waves press against ...
