Sailing-Non-fiction

[___/)ances With Sails]

Educate me!

[___/)ances With Sails]

Two I've heard of lately and after acquiring cant seem to put them down are:
Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach, by Don Casey & Lew Hacker

Addressing various issues of cruising, keeping to the K.I.S.S. theory, many eye-opening circumstances are elborated on in a sensible format.

and,

Nigel Calder's Cruising Handbook, by Nigel Calder

An in-depth manual about boats, their structure, components, and crew. Much to learn here regarding self-sufficiency aboard and beyond.

[Richard]

Sensible Cruising is a dangerous book...if more people read it and got the message, anchorages might become much more crowded.

[___/)ances With Sails]

I hear ye, I do. Since someone on here recommended it, Ive found it to be VERY enlightening. I m ready to start refitting my dinghy, by garsh!

[Richard]

I'VE been touting Sensible Cruising from day one on SeaKnots. It changed MY life.

[Mary F]

The Voyager's Handbook by Beth Leonard
The Care and Feeding of a Sailing Crew by Lin Pardey helps give me some ideas when I'm stuck on meal planning

Nigel Calder's books and Charlie Wing's books

Mary F
s/v Sea Fox
Saga 43

[Kate]

How Boat Things Work by Charlie wing (for the "boat systems challenged")
Sailboat Maintenance by Eric Jorgensen (about maintaining old boats)
Singlehanded Sailing by Richard Henderson
Storm Tactics by the Pardeys
The Weekend Navigator by Bob Sweet (navigation basics)
The Galley Guru by Hayden-Miller (she uses ingredients I actually like and use at home.)

~ are my recent favorites. Coming from a mountaineering and climbing background I also find H. W. Tilman's book The Eight Sailing/Mountaineering Books ~ book to be fascinating. It's 8 books in one, about how he took up sailing at 50 years old as a means to get him and his climbing partners to their climbing destinations by sailboat. The book spans many years of exploration and many expeditions across numerous oceans. Enjoy ~~

[Suky]

Kate - I know this isn't a sailing book, but listening to your Mountaineering books, I wondered if you'd read non-fiction, Three Cups of Tea.

[Suky]

An Ocean of Air by Gabrielle Walker - Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere.
I just picked this up. I don't normally go to the science section but this one caught my eye. Touted as clear, witty and unbelieveably interesting, I'm hoping it will give me a better overall understanding of the weather.
Paperback 975-0-15-603414-2

s/v Imogene Z
O'Day 17

[Liv]

Hey book worms,
I'm reading 'Storm Passage' by Webb Chiles at the moment. . .It's an older book, published in 1977 when the oceans were still relatively clean.. :-) . I"m enjoying this book very much, can't get my nose out of it and hubby is already giving me 'the eye'.. LOL.
The book is an account of Webb's sail alone around Cape Horn. He writes " I will know defeat, despair, fear, serenity and peace." And, tested he was. The book is almost poetic. What an uplifting book to read especially when our boat is still on the hard.

[Liv]

Just finished reading " Two years before the mast' by Dana.
Merchant sailing in 1834 from Boston to California and return..
I enjoyed reading this book very much as it took me into the past, sailing the old merchant vessel, life and work on board, a good description of coastal California back then.

[Liv]

I'm never without a book beside my bedroom table or on the boat where , while lying on anchor, I love to read.

I've just finished another Merlin Bree Book titled " In the wake of the green storm'.
Marlin Bree never disappoints. I've read all of his books except his newest, which was just published.

The book,' in the wake of the green storm' I couldn't put down, read it cover to cover. It tells about Marlin's sailing adventure and exploration of the north shore of Lake Superior in his wooden sailboat' Persistence' which he built himself.

He had to battle storms and bad weather while he was sailing the north shore and he tells about it. He also touches on the history of some of the wrecks the big lake claimed. I can relate to this book because I know the area he writes about. It's one big, awesome lake , that big norhern one, and the book a great read..
I highly recommend it.

At times Marlin can be found on the trailer sailor e-mail list.
I will have to let him know how much I enjoyed the book.

[Liv]

I just finished the book ' My life and the West Wind' by Mary Whitney.
It's one of the few books that I regret reading or purchasing.

Let me try to say something posetive about this book.. " It's clear that the author is a very kind and warm - hearted lady. The book contains ' some' information about sailing through the Great Lakes, down the St. Lawrence river, then going south along the US East Coast to Florida and to the Bahamas".

The book is self published and this may be because a publisher wouldn't touch such a book. The book has never been edited or checked for grammar. It contains no pharagraphs and the extremely long sentences have no punctuation. The author rambles on and on [without taking a breath it seems ] about her life, her relatives and friends. She describes every detail about her family life. She recalls every phone calls, letters from relatives, health problems, what's for dinner. Every birthday of every realtive is mentioned and best wishes are expressed on the appropriate day.. and on and on it goes.

It was clear to me, after reading the first few sentences of the foreword, that this book was not for me and I speed-read through it. It's for sale on e-bay.