Recommend a good Sailing Book?

[Dave X2000 Jac]

Hello Group,
I just finished reading John Rousmanier's After the Storm. I liked it, but I was hoping to love it. The book's concept is great - to detail some really heavy-duty storms and the boats that had the unfortunate experience to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I suppose that it was like reading Zen, and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and wishing that the book had more about motorcycles and less philosophy of life. Rousmanier's prose was intense and often heart-breaking, but I just wanted a bit more about sailing. Uness someone in this group proposes an alternative, I'll be reading Sailing Around the World (Joshua Slocum) for the 4th time (Yet, I LOVE it every time.) while the snow falls outside.
Dave "Jac"

[opie]

I agree about Slocum's book. It is old enough to be in the public domain so you can download it for free here.
My eyes are still good enough to slam the text into my Palm Pilot and read it there. Conrad has some nice sea stories at Gutenberg and there are Dana's classics also.
Opie

[Greg]

This web page provides a lot of interesting reading material http://cruisenews.net/index.php

I had metioned this before but I like to listen to books on tape when on a trip and while working around the house.

One of my favorites is "My old Man and the Sea" by David Hayes (not "The Old Man and the Sea".)

Our local library is getting a pretty good selection of books on tape.

Greg

[wayfarer]

Hi,

I'm new on this board and was just browsing around but had to share this with you - I just ran across this book in National Geographic Adventure magazine:


Adrift: Seventy Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan

On the night of January 29, 1982, Steven Callahan set sail in his small sloop from the Canary Islands bound for the Caribbean. Thus began one of the most remarkable sea adventures of all time. Six days out, the sloop sank, and Callahan found himself adrift in the Atlantic in a five-and-a-half-foot inflatable raft with only three pounds of food and eight pints of water. He would drift for seventy-six days over eighteen hundred miles of ocean before he reached land and rescue.

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

This is a great winter read. I find I enjoy reading it over and over each year. Quite an amazing adventure.

North to the Night by Alvah Simon



Here is the jacket info:

In the vastness and silence of the Arctic wastes, a man and his wife were caught like flies in amber, their 35-foot steel cutter frozen in the polar ice. After a beautiful and sometimes hair-raising voyage beyond Baffin Island and far above the Arctic Circle, Diana and Alvah Simon could go no further, and made preparations for the long Arctic night. But her father's diagnosis of terminal cancer called Diana away--and after a dramatic evacuation by helicopter, Alvah was left to survive the winter alone. This is their story: of an epic voyage, their encounters with the Inuit people, his descent into near-madness, and Diana's return in the spring, through harsh weather and near disaster.

"North to the Night is a significant addition to the literature of the Arctic, by an author-explorer of the first rank. Alvah Simon writes beautifully about his iced-up world and, indeed, about Nature itself, but without the dreamy romanticism that has sunk many a lesser narrative. His book is the genuine article. Urgently recommended."--Lawrence Millman, author of Last Places: A Journey in the North and An Evening Among the Headhunters.

"Punctuated with wit, charm, surprisingly turns, spirituality, romantic views, and crystalline insights, North to the Night is more than just a great read. Through gales, blizzards, endless night, crushing ice, and near sinking we are taken to the edge of madness and the core of human frailty and strength.--Steve Callahan, author of Adrift.

"This is truly an adventure story--an intense and gripping exploration of the extreme reaches of the outer and inner world. It reminded me of Jon Krakauer's work, with its blend of suspense and analysis and sheer ability to communicate why and how people do extraordinary things. Though set in the dark of the long Arctic winter, North to the night is filled with illumination.--Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and The Age of Missing Information.

About the Author: Alvah Simon spent thirteen years sailing the world, finding adventure in Borneo's jungles, Africa's deserts, and Cape Horn's ship graveyards. For their Arctic journey, he and his wife, Diana, received the 1997 Cruising World Outstanding Seamanship Award. The Simons live aboard the Roger Henry.

[opie]

I enjoy literature about sailing, whether in magazines or in books, new or old. I was thinking that if enough people in this "community of sailing enthusiasts" agreed, perhaps the website boss would consider giving literature its own category on the discussion board.

[James V]

This link has a lot of good reading material
http://www.rmlibrary.com/sites/safetboa ... ing-Marine
This is a pay site.

[Greg]

$ 299.95 per year

[opie]

Another example of good writing out there.
Sailing Vessel Denis Sullivan

[BK]

I would have to say The Bounty triligy is my favorite sea book as I have read it a few times. I had to go see all the islands and lived there in the tropics for 12 years. The British Maritime Museum at Greenwich has a few items related to the voyage including Captain Bligh's timepeice which he used for navigation and a coconut shell he used to give each of the 19 men his portion of food after the mutiny on the long voyage to a safe port. They also have a large portion of the Bounty's metal sheaving and a sea-chest belonging to one of the mutineers who lived on Pitcain Island. I have a piece of metal artifact from the Bounty found by the discoveror of the Bounty at Pitcain in the 1950's. The movie with Brando is very good and Mel Gibson did a version.
The Captain Cook voyages are also high on my list.

[LCB]

The Long Way recounts the incredible story of Bernard Moitessier's participation in the first Golden Globe Race a solo, non-stop circumnavigation rounding the three great Capes of Good Hope, Leeuwin, and the Horn. For seven months, the veteran seafarer battled storms, doldrums, gear failures, and knock-downs, as well as overwhelming fatigue and loneliness. Then, nearing the finish with victory in hand, Moitessier suddenly pulled out of the race and sailed on. His 37,455-mile journey continued for another three months, finally ending in Tahiti. Never once in all that time had he touched land.

[wayfarer]

There's a good book called Maiden Voyage you should read. A young girl (actually a brat) named Tania sailed around the world in a 26 ft sloop. I was amazed when she described putting up the sails and heading out from NY. Something to the effect, "this is the first time I've been sailing alone." She barely knew how to sail and was leaving to sail solo around the world! After her motor broke early on she wrote something like, "I came out here to sail, not to motor," and continued to Bermuda with a dead battery. She almost missed Bermuda because her cheap plastic sextant was warped. Imagine that; people actually used to navigate without a GPS. She made it around the world, not without problems but she made it.
BB

I ran across this in another thread and thought it would go well here.

I did end up buying Adrift: Seventy Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan. Can't wait to read it.

[vatalon]

Currently reading the Patrick O'Brian Series on Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin of Master and Commander. Up to book 13 of 20 that he completed prior to his death. Book 21 has been published based on his research notes and manuscripts. Also enjoyed "My Old Man and the Sea" by David Hays & Daniel Hays about a father and son sailing around Cape Horn.

[jda]

How about the Horatio Hornblower series by C.S. Forester? Now those are page turners! I think they would be age appropriate for ? 5 or 6 th grade and up. I didn't read them when I was in Jr. High, but I know I would have liked them. Good, clean, enjoyable reading for all ages.

jda

[BK]

I just finished reading "Blue Latitudes" by Tony Horwitz. The author goes to all the places in the Pacific visited by Captain Cook over two Hundred years ago to see what they are like today. The history of Cook's youth is interesting. Considering his background and that time in history, it is surprising he made it to the rank of Captain.
When I lived in Hawaii in the seventies they had a maritime museum next to the Aloha Tower that had many personal items belonging to Captain Cook and from his voyages. The British Maritime Museum in Greenwich also has many items from his voyages including the first chronograph watch which he was testing. This watch and how it was made is also a good book.