Sailing Books
- Thread starter Rick R.
- Start date
Slocum's son, Victor, has a marvellous book which adds a lot to the captain's story. Slocum doesn't really let on how world famous he was at the time of Spray, meeting heads of state and recognized like a rock star every port he came into.
I still read and reread all the wonderful books, but today they'd be making video diaries. There are so many on Youtube now it feels like the oceans are bumper-car with boats.
And they go on and on. This one is famous
http://cruisinglealea.com/
Great accomplishment, but stunningly repetitive. The reader comments are entertaining: "You don;t knowme, but I gotta say you are a boring person." And "Why do you keep interrupting your wife? Let her talk once in a while!!"
He replies: "I'm working on that."
Lots of useful stuff, but not at all thh flavor of Moitessier, deciding what the hell, just keep going across the pacific all over again....
I still read and reread all the wonderful books, but today they'd be making video diaries. There are so many on Youtube now it feels like the oceans are bumper-car with boats.
And they go on and on. This one is famous
http://cruisinglealea.com/
Great accomplishment, but stunningly repetitive. The reader comments are entertaining: "You don;t knowme, but I gotta say you are a boring person." And "Why do you keep interrupting your wife? Let her talk once in a while!!"
He replies: "I'm working on that."
Lots of useful stuff, but not at all thh flavor of Moitessier, deciding what the hell, just keep going across the pacific all over again....
Rick R.
Contributing Partner
Ill check that out. Be careful reading "Sailing the Dream". It will make you want to go on an extended cruise!
paul culver
Member III
Dana and Slocum are very good. I would add anything by Tristan Jones (semi-fictional, it is said) and definately "Adrift" by Callahan.
Paul
E29 "Bear"
Paul
E29 "Bear"
I just reread Dana last month. The physical work load of the seal crews is astonishing.
Try Darwin, "The Voyage of the Beagle," and perhaps "Origin of Species." Such powers of observation are today no longer emphasized and have atrophied in all of us. It's not so much the science that strikes you, as the eye with which Darwin looks at the most mundane natural thing. It will give you a new way to see a tide pool or a grain of sand or a variety of wheat.. And since he was aboard through East coast SA, and went around the Horn, as well as to Galapagos, the perspective of a naturalist aboard ship gives a new lens on all the stuff we are familiar with from the sailor's point of view.
He's a very good and clear writer. The pace is leisurely, however, and the details rather than the narrative are what holds the attention.
Try Darwin, "The Voyage of the Beagle," and perhaps "Origin of Species." Such powers of observation are today no longer emphasized and have atrophied in all of us. It's not so much the science that strikes you, as the eye with which Darwin looks at the most mundane natural thing. It will give you a new way to see a tide pool or a grain of sand or a variety of wheat.. And since he was aboard through East coast SA, and went around the Horn, as well as to Galapagos, the perspective of a naturalist aboard ship gives a new lens on all the stuff we are familiar with from the sailor's point of view.
He's a very good and clear writer. The pace is leisurely, however, and the details rather than the narrative are what holds the attention.
Rick R.
Contributing Partner
Dana sure led an interesting life. It's too bad he didn't reconnect with his dear friend Hope when he returned many years later. I will check out Darwin's book. I've read "Adrift" and I haven't looked at a Mahi Mahi the same since.
I started "Encounters of a Wayward Sailor" but I have a hard time knowing that it is pseudo- fiction.
I started "Encounters of a Wayward Sailor" but I have a hard time knowing that it is pseudo- fiction.
Sam Vickery
Member III
Tristan Jones is a great read. But, it is important to remember what Patience Wales said about him. "The truth never got in the way of a good story"
Sam
North Star
32-3
Sam
North Star
32-3
D & DM Cahill
Member II
Hi All. Although not a "sailing book", those sailing the Salish Sea, especially the Gulf Island and Desolation Sound, will probably enjoy M. Wylie Blanchet's book, THE CURVE OF TIME. Most from this area have probably already read it. To quote the publisher: "After her husband died in 1927, leaving her with five small children, everyone expected the struggles of single motherhood on a remote island to overcome M. Wylie Blanchet. Instead, this courageous woman became one of the pioneers of “family travel,” acting as both mother and captain of the twenty-five-foot boat that became her family’s home during the long Northwest summers. Blanchet’s lyrically written account reads like fantastic fiction, but her adventures are all very real. There are dangers—rough water, bad weather, wild animals—but there are also the quiet respect and deep peace of a woman teaching her children the wonder and awesome depth of the natural world."
I enjoyed it and have given it to my Daughter and Grand Daughters to read. It shows just how much technology has changed and how self-reliant our fore fathers and mothers were. I thought it was a good read, especially for the Grand Daughters, to show that women can do anything they set their minds to (something most married men already know!). Thanks. Dave
I enjoyed it and have given it to my Daughter and Grand Daughters to read. It shows just how much technology has changed and how self-reliant our fore fathers and mothers were. I thought it was a good read, especially for the Grand Daughters, to show that women can do anything they set their minds to (something most married men already know!). Thanks. Dave
"Plus One" on this recommendation.
I had heard about this book for many years, but only got around to reading it a couple years ago.
It's a fine read and factual.
Loren
Jeff Asbury
Principal Partner
One of my favorite subjects!
Here are a few I have read in recent years. Added the Amazon links so you can read the reviews:
Ten Degrees of Reckoning: A True Story of Survival
http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Degrees-R...&sr=8-1&keywords=10+degrees+of+reckoning+book
The Proving Ground
http://www.amazon.com/Proving-Groun...1397079977&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Proving+Ground
My Old Man and the Sea: A Father and Son Sail Around Cape Horn
http://www.amazon.com/My-Old-Man-Se...080035&sr=1-1&keywords=my+old+man+and+the+sea
Wanderer by Sterling Hayden
http://www.amazon.com/Wanderer-Ster...7&sr=1-1&keywords=wanderer+by+sterling+hayden
Two Against Cape Horn
http://www.amazon.com/Two-against-C...97080171&sr=1-1&keywords=Two+Against+the+horn
Here are a few I have read in recent years. Added the Amazon links so you can read the reviews:
Ten Degrees of Reckoning: A True Story of Survival
http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Degrees-R...&sr=8-1&keywords=10+degrees+of+reckoning+book
The Proving Ground
http://www.amazon.com/Proving-Groun...1397079977&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Proving+Ground
My Old Man and the Sea: A Father and Son Sail Around Cape Horn
http://www.amazon.com/My-Old-Man-Se...080035&sr=1-1&keywords=my+old+man+and+the+sea
Wanderer by Sterling Hayden
http://www.amazon.com/Wanderer-Ster...7&sr=1-1&keywords=wanderer+by+sterling+hayden
Two Against Cape Horn
http://www.amazon.com/Two-against-C...97080171&sr=1-1&keywords=Two+Against+the+horn
Rick R.
Contributing Partner
Jeff those are four I have not read and by looking at the links they all look interesting. "Wanderer" is not available at iBooks unfortunately. I started the Darwin book yesterday. It is on iBooks and like the Dana book is FREE! Must be that it's public domain. Also started "The Curve of Time" and it looks great.
Thanks
Jeff Asbury
Principal Partner
I can't help ya with iBooks or eBooks, I still prefer pulp.
"Wanderer" is one of the best books overall I have ever read. Not just about Sterling's sailing adventures but his amazing biography. Parts even read like a Steinbeck novel, but it was his life. I think it would make a great movie!
Rick R.
Contributing Partner
I have a HUGE library at my house and love seeing all those books I've consumed but I must admit that I'm becoming more of a fan of reading on the iPad. Small, has all the books I've read in the past year ( most of them) and I don't need a night light. The downside is the graphics are terrible....
sent from my iPhone
sent from my iPhone
Rocinante33
Contributing Partner
"The Song of the Sirens," by Ernest K. Gann
After you read the book, rent the movie, "White Squall." Same boat.
After you read the book, rent the movie, "White Squall." Same boat.
I've ordered "The Curve of Time".
"The Boy, Me, and the Cat" is an extraordinarily affecting story by Henry Plummer of a cruise south on a Cape Cod catboat from New Bedford to Biscayne Bay. The trip occurred 1912-1913. Plummer is a gifted diarist and his relation with his son, Henry Jr., and his cat, Scotty, is understated in the grand Yankee tradition, and will make any father aware of the strange bond he has, most of it necessarily unspoken, with his children, especially one who carries his name and upon whom he lavishes hope and stern attention.
It has been in and out of print, and has a curious publishing history--started as a mimeographed private publication, until every reader demanded it get put into real print.
But there is something else, darker and still with me many years after my own father gave me a hardbound copy on "February, 1981."
It is the appendix of my edition, which has two entries.
One is from Henry Plummer, Jr--the boy. It was he who gave over the manuscript to be formally published, with these words: " For eight months [the boat] was home to me. For eight months I learned from both boat and father. I like to think that some of the education is passed along through the brief entries in her log."
The second is an editorial from The Morning Mercury of New Bedford, dated May 9, 1928, recounting how young Henry Plummer, Jr, who became an aviator in the Great War, was killed in action.
"The Boy, Me, and the Cat" is an extraordinarily affecting story by Henry Plummer of a cruise south on a Cape Cod catboat from New Bedford to Biscayne Bay. The trip occurred 1912-1913. Plummer is a gifted diarist and his relation with his son, Henry Jr., and his cat, Scotty, is understated in the grand Yankee tradition, and will make any father aware of the strange bond he has, most of it necessarily unspoken, with his children, especially one who carries his name and upon whom he lavishes hope and stern attention.
It has been in and out of print, and has a curious publishing history--started as a mimeographed private publication, until every reader demanded it get put into real print.
But there is something else, darker and still with me many years after my own father gave me a hardbound copy on "February, 1981."
It is the appendix of my edition, which has two entries.
One is from Henry Plummer, Jr--the boy. It was he who gave over the manuscript to be formally published, with these words: " For eight months [the boat] was home to me. For eight months I learned from both boat and father. I like to think that some of the education is passed along through the brief entries in her log."
The second is an editorial from The Morning Mercury of New Bedford, dated May 9, 1928, recounting how young Henry Plummer, Jr, who became an aviator in the Great War, was killed in action.
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