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 ...
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, Ha...
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 ...
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 ...
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 P...
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 Admir...
Told in the first person, The Angel Island Conspiracy is an action/thriller/mystery that reads like a true-life story. Author Robert Banks Hull sets his story on Angel Island, a real tourist destinati...
Mike Link and Kate Crowley took a 1,555 mile walk two years ago. Around Lake Superior. For 5 months. As close to the shore as possible the entire way. Why? To explore, to meet people, to gather enviro...
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 ho...
… 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 Cornel...
With two novels now wrapped inside one big cover, Rob Smith makes a gigantic statement in the fascinating game of “What If?” The scenario in his two Shrader Marks books, Night Voices and Keelhouse, no...
In the mid-1970s the world changed forever as we, the general public, were made aware of just how fragile our way of life is during the first oil shortage. Those of us who are old enough can remember ...
The Freakin’ Old Guys (FOGs for short, and that first word isn’t the one they use) are a group of older sailors doing a messabout in the San Juan Islands. There is Gibson Stanford, known as Gib, retir...
The Latest News from Purgatory Cove is a collection of 40 two- to three-page-long “letters” from the fictional Purgatory Cove Fish Dock & Marina. Readers familiar with Garrison Keillor might find ...
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, ...
The Limbus of the Moon is a novel in the mold of a Dan Brown thriller, or at least it tries to be. Viator venenatusis a sea urchin, very rare, incredibly valuable, and possibly the source of life-savi...
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 y...
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. P...
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...
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...
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 Hur...
This book by Charles and Corinne Kanter, the daring duo of the title, is the ninth they have written about their lives (married 54 years!) spent mostly sailing in mostly catamarans, along the East Coa...
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 ...
Stone Boat Odyssey by Ralph and Phyllis Nansen is a follow-your-dream story many sailors will relate to. In the mid-1960s, Ralph and Phyllis were a successful Pacific Northwest couple in their 30s who...
We recently received a large (28 x 36-inch) wall map featuring the shipwrecks off the coast of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Suffice it to say that over the years there have b...
After going through this book, almost page by page, I have decided that a much better name for it would have been the “Mariner’s Encyclopedia.” Its 544 well-illustrated pages are, truly, that complete...
BY NICHOLAS COGHLAN (UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA PRESS, 2011; 496 PAGES, 4 MAPS, 48 PHOTOGRAPHS; $34.95) REVIEW BY CHAS. HAGUE DES PLAINES, ILLINOIS In 1978, newly graduated Nicholas Coghlan and his girlfri...
As the old saying goes, variety is the spice of life. That’s why I try to listen to different types of music and eat different types of foods. But I definitely have my favorites: listening to classic ...
In 1978, newly graduated Nicholas Coghlan and his girlfriend Jenny moved to Buenos Aires to take a job at a private English school. While there, they traveled extensively on the continent, including a...
When I first looked at SEAsoned I didn’t know what to expect. The front cover has a picture of one of those mega-yachts we see from time to time that make us wonder if the helipad is on the bow or ste...
