Summer Reading

[Brian C.]

As you all know from reading this forum, we have had some dreary Spring weather here in Maine. To get excited for the sailing season despite the weather, I recently re-read Joshua Slocum's book Sailing Alone Around the World. It was so great to revisit such a classic that I started thinking about purchasing some books to have around for summer reading. Anyone care to share the titles of their favorite sailing-related books? Thanks in advance.

[Tim]

I re-read Blown Away and You Can't Blow Home Again by Herb Payson about once per year, usually while cruising. These two books detail the Paysons' cruise around the South Pacific in the 70s, and are great reads--full of humor, self deprication, and all the stuff that cruising dreams are made of. Very fun reads.

[hesper]

Brian,

Try Seastruck by Bunting. Same author as Portrait of a Port and A Day's Work.
Second two are excellent photo documentaries. They're books you'll look at for years to come. Hard to find Portrait but is available used. Seastruck is more a collection of logs from New Bedford whaling ships at the turn of the century.

Jim

[Rachel]

Good idea for a thread.

I liked "My Old Man and The Sea," by David and Daniel Hays - father and son who sail around The Horn together in an engineless 25-footer they've built themselves from a bare hull.

I really never get tired of the "Seraffyn" cruising stories (four books), by Lin Pardey. I like the technical how-to stuff interspersed with the adventures.

Hal Roth's "Two On a Big Ocean" was a good read. I think it was his first book; he and his wife, Margaret, do a Pacific circuit, inluding coming back through Japan and the Aleutians.

Also "North to the Night," by Alvah Simon (maybe not so good in cold weather, but refreshing on a hot summer night watch :-). He and his partner take their boat up to Nunavut to ice in for a winter.

Although I didn't think I'd like "The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst," I finally read it on passage when I'd run out of everything else, and I quite enjoyed it. It's the story of one of the participants in the first Golden Globe race (which was jam packed with "characters"), who has a mental breakdown along the way.

Muriel Wylie Blanchet's "The Curve of Time" and Val Haigh's "Chasing the Dream: Tryste Around the World" are two favorites by British Columbia authors.

I always have to marvel when I read the latter: A couple builds a trimaran and sets off on a year-long cruise with four of their daughters and $1000 to their name. Sure that was more money in the 1960s, when they went, but it wasn't *that* much. And the thing is that Val and Ernest (the parents) are about the same age as *my* parents; imagining my folks doing that is a tough one (even though my Mom's a tomboy of sorts). Truly a unique family! I thougth it was well-written, too. Not a "and then we did this, and then we did that" type of log at all. And boy, is that format hard to avoid - I tried to do it myself, and it's just so easy to slip into that style (which I find a bit of a yawn to read).

Ms. Blanchet writes about her annual forays into the wilds of British Columbia for number of summers with her (four or five?) kids in a small wooden powerboat (in the 1930s or 40s). (Her husband had disappeared a number of years before while out on a trip in the same boat - she's a widow).

Nothing like a stack of good books and either a long passage or a few days at anchor! :-)

--- Rachel

[The Good Goose]

My favorite is Two Years Before The Mast by Dana. True story of a Harvard student tired of school who ships out on a tall ship bound for california in the 1800's. Great read.

Endurance the book on shackelton's expedition is an incredible story.

Not really a sailing story but still a water connection is The Starship and the Canoe. The story of a young man coming to terms with his relationship twoards his father while building and journeying in a Baidarka Kayak. Dyson is the author

My all time favorite is Moby Dick. Mellville is incredible. If you never read this Read it. If you read it a long time ago reread it. I reread it a couple of years ago and loved it.


Brock Richardson

[JonnyBoats]

So many great books have already been mentioned, so I will not repeat any of them.

I would like to add:

1) The Compleat Cruiser by L. Francis Herreshoff

for technical books consider

2) Offshore Sailing - 200 Essential Passagemaking Tips by Bill Seifert

3) This Old Boat by Don Casey

4) How to Sail Around the World - Advice and Ideas for Voyaging Under Sail by Hal Roth.

PS: Is it true Tim that working condisions and pay in your workshop are quite similar to those experienced by Dana in Two Years Before the Mast?

[windrose]

Two words----TRISTAN JONES! Oh the yarns he can weave!

Then you gotta love Patrick O'Brien's ol lucky Jack Aubrey..........

Here's one for your mate, She Captains-- Heroines and Hellions of the Sea by Joan Druett.

On a side note, met Margaret Roth in the toilet at the boat show.... had to work my nerve up to introduce myself (to me they are some of sailings icons, they were doing it when it wasn't done).... there she was right in the toilet with me.... anyway, we chatted a bit and she encouraged me to "go now". For me, it was like meeting Ghandi or the Pope or something, it had a very profound effect on me.

Later that day, after a leisurely stay at the Pusser's tent... Olaf Harken caught me before I fell, but that is another story....aaarrrgh!

[Tim]

PS: Is it true Tim that working condisions and pay in your workshop are quite similar to those experienced by Dana in Two Years Before the Mast?

I plead the fifth!

[Tim]

To add to the reading list:

I have read all of the various books by Hal Roth, including those mentioned above, but I always enjoy his writings. The books can be a bit dry at times, but the photography is always good, and once you get used to Roth's writing style, they are good reads covering these impressive voyagers' many trips. The only one I have on hand that I have not been able to get through was We Followed Odysseus, and it's been some time since I tried. Perhaps I'll throw that one on the boat for the cruise this year and give it another go.

I see Roth has a few newer books that I was not aware of, books that seem to cover his most recent home base on the Eastern Shore in the Chesapeake rather than any serious sailing trips.

I also have an existing, long list of reference and sailing adventure books posted on my website:

http://www.triton381.com/resources/sources/library.htm

[Figment]

Walden usually makes a summertime appearance.
I also seem to favor a collection of E.B. White's essays for lighter fare.
Linda Greenlaw always makes for good boaty reading.

Then last summer I was in a rut of books about people doing odd "circumnavigations" in small open boats.... A guy went around Ireland in a kayak. Another guy rowed around the eastern US via the great lakes and mississippi river. Still another camp-cruised the inside passage to alaska in an outboard skiff.

[Eric]

My personal weakness is [i]The Riddle of the Sands[/i] by Erskine Childers.

BTW, I think someone could build a nice little web site around this question...

[FloatingMoneyPit]

Opposite on the narrative spectrum of our beloved multi-circumnavigators, ocean-crossing dinghy stunters, and the like are two books that I think most of us can readily relate to. Both books reaffirm the pleasures of cruising in smaller boats.

The Coast of Summer (Anthony Bailey) - narrates the annual pfutzing-around August cruise of a couple in a Tartan 27 from LI Sound to Cape Cod. No heart-stopping thrills, but Bailey does a nice job of incorporating anecdotes, history, and coastal cruising as a part of life.

From Loon to London (Peter Baumgartener) - When you're done with all the classics. You've probably already seen the gist in G.O.B. magazine. Similar to Bailey. Not quite as literary a writer, the range changes to Cape Cod-Maine, and emphasizes his "restoration" of a Cape Dory 27. Not exactly a Glissando level project, but there are plenty of laugh-out-loud, been there, done that episodes as he contemplates projects, fumbles with tools, runs aground, and goes on quests for those hard to find parts.

[A30_John]

I recently read (and thoroughly enjoyed) Into the Light by Dave and Jaja Martin. It's a story about a couple and their three kids who sail a refurbished 35' steel boat to the pack ice at Spitsburgen and back to the USA on a limited budget. They currently live in Maine.

[hesper]

I forgot to include the blatent catboat plug. That is for The Boy, Me and the Cat by Henry Plummer. Re-Published by The Catboat Assoc, inc (www.catboats.org), this is the log of Mascot,a 24 foot catboat which Plummer, his son and the cat sailed to Florida and back from the New Bedford area in the winter of 1912/13. It's a must read from a historical and entertainment perspective.
jim

[Robert The Gray]

to this i would add the sailing stories of joseph conrad. Alberto dumas account of the roaring forties.and jack londons accounts of the oyster pirates. I must say nothing makes me want to sail as much as reading the compleat cruiser while sitting in front of the fire on a rainy night.

r

[Eric]

IMHO, Lincoln Colcord compares well to Conrad. Sea Stories from Searsport to Singapore: Selected Works of Lincoln Colcord (by Lincoln Colcord, Donald Mortland ISBN: 0896211053) seems to be out of print, but used copies are readily available. I'm reading it again for the fourth or fifth time and loving it. This has me looking for copy of his earlier masterpiece The Drifting Diamond...

[CapnK]

Only seen a couple here that I haven't read, and of the ones I have, I've read most at least twice. :) Here's a couple more -

Journey of a Hope Merchant - by Neal Peterson is the story of a young man who built his own boat in South Africa. Not a big deal? Well, he was a young black man, and did this during apartheid. What makes that even more amazing is that he then sailed the boat to England, did the OSTAR to qualify for the BOC, sailed that BOC getting dismasted after leaving Africa, regrouped over the next few years, and then did a 2nd OSTAR and BOC, finishing the BOC. A really incredible story. Turns out he lives less than 30 miles from here, I'm going to try and look him up soon. This is a really good book.

One of my all-time favorites is Bob Griffiths "Bluewater". It pretty much seems like gospel to me, based on my experiences. :)

"Two Years Before The Mast" was mentioned above. Well, Richard Henry Dana's great-grandson came through our marina earlier this year, just after I'd finished rereading the book for about the third time. I thought that was neat. His boat was a little nicer than great grandpas - here's a picture of it (there are a few more here if you'd like):

[Eric]

Only seen a couple here that I haven't read, and of the ones I have, I've read most at least twice. :)

Same here, but it seems to me that this forum is pretty sympatico. New literature-of-the-sea jewels are valuable and worth some effort to me. I was unaware of the Neal Peterson story and am looking forward to getting my hands on a copy.

Now it seems to me that the forum format is not particularly well oriented to creating a characterized list of literature, but its better than nothing... Tim?

[dasein668]

Figment, why haven't you dredged this thread up yet? Looks like its been 18 months or so since this was updated. Anyone got any new recommendations?

Come Hell on High Water?Some of the Amazon reviewers felt this book was too whiney. And it is whiney. But in a very funny way. An amusing and fast read.

After the Storm?This is a collection of short essays/historical accounts of various disasters at sea. It's a bit uneven, but not a bad read.

In the Heart of the Sea?This is a fantastic read about the whaleship Essex, sunk by a whale.

which of course leads to...

Moby Dick?Yeah, its a classic that made you want to scream in high school. But its actually a really good read. Give it a shot! Edit: I see this was posted above. I second the recommendation.

[MikeD]

I've been meaning to revisit this thread and throw in a couple of titles as well as pick up some new ideas. Thanks for dredging Nathan...

Recommended:
- Bernard Moitessier
- Hal Roth
- Swan the Second Voyage by Jim Moore: I like how he intersperses technical tips with the story. A decent sense of humor too.
- The Water In Between by Kevin Patterson
- Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan - he started on a sailboat anyway...

Not recommended:
- We Followed Odysseus: Like Tim, I enjoy Hal Roth immensely, but do NOT make this your first Hal Roth book! It was a real effort just to get through it. Two on a Big Ocean got me started on Hal.
- Sailing the Dream by John F. McGrady: I have yet to make it through this one. As Rachel mentioned earlier, it is your typical, we did this, then we did that...

[FloatingMoneyPit]

Nothing to add, but have Tim or any other Ensign fans here read The Ensign Story, by Lionel Taylor? I just ordered it as a Father's Day gift (he raced them back in the 60's) and wonder if it's a good read.

[Tim]

...have Tim or any other Ensign fans here read The Ensign Story, by Lionel Taylor?...wonder if it's a good read.

We'll find out. I just ordered it for myself. Thanks for the tip!

Not recommended:
- We Followed Odysseus: Like Tim, I enjoy Hal Roth immensely, but do NOT make this your first Hal Roth book! It was a real effort just to get through it.

You're a better man than I. I never even got through that book.

[The Good Goose]

One more reccomendation that I was sure was here but I didn't see is The Boat That Wouldn't Float by Farley Mowat. Great story of sailing misadventures in the maritime provinces. I had expected his writing to be preachy and self rightous and had avoided him but I found him anything but that. Self deprecating humor, great story telling, great summer fare.

Brock

[CharlieJ]

The book that long ago hooked me on the idea of cruising in a sailboat. It's somewhat hard to find now as it's been out of print for a while-

"Princess, New York" By Joe Richards.

Joe bought Princess, a friendship sloop, before WW2, refitted her and cruised down the east coast, interrupted by the war. The book continues post war.

Joe died in the late 80s, lived in Florida and still had Princess.

[Figment]

I'm such a slacker.

Now that I think about it, I haven't really been reading anything boaty lately. All history and politics. The closest thing to fit that definition would be The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell, which was a moderately interesting history of New York as told via the rise and fall of oyster consumption.

I did go through The Compleat Cruiser again for some reason. Now that I think of it, this may be what inspired my Nonsuch distraction.

Next is Beebe's Cruising Under Power, which I had the good fortune of finding in a pile of discards. I'm told it's worthy.

[catamount]

Here are some books to consider:

Precision Cruising by Arthur F. Chace -- not your normal how-to book nor cruising narrative, but a collection of very instructional stories involving The Old Man and his crew.

Cathedral of the World: Sailing Notes for a Blue Planet by Myron Arms -- very philosophical, but full of good lessons about seamanship and life.

Seamanship : A Voyage Along the Wild Coasts of the British Isles by Adam Nicolson -- there's a lot about the responsibilities of being captain in here.

Into the Light: A Family's Epic Journey by Dave and Jaja Martin -- some good reflection about the seamanship they've learned over their life of cruising, and full of good humor too.

Close to the Wind by Pete Goss -- there's a life of preparation that leads up to doing extraordinary feats as they were no big deal.

Shackleton's Boat Journey by Frank Arthur Worsley -- Worsley was the captain of Shackleton's ship Endurance and so this is a true first-hand account (the best kind) of this amazing story.

BTW, Moby Dick was one of the funniest, most hilarious books I ever read. Melville was such a craftsman and had such a command of the language, his ability to turn a phrase and tell a story had me laughing out loud throughout the book. Avoid getting bogged down in hermeneutics, and just read the story for the great adventure that it is.

Regards,

[Allen]

Where is Joe Merchant?
by Jimmy Buffett

This is my favorite beach and boat read.



A History of Pirates: Blood and Thunder on the High Seas
by Nigel Cawthorne

This is the best history on the Golden Age of Piracy I've yet found.

[CharlieJ]

Another one that I've reread from time to time is Hiscock's "Wandering Under Sail"

Written starting before WW2 and finished after. In the first parts he describes his early cruises in Voyager and Voyager II. Both engineless gaff rigged boats. He sailed all over the English Channel, around Brittany and up into Ireland, etc. Later tales are of voyages after he met Susan, and one was of their first cruise together.

Fascinating reading, giving glimpses into the harbors of that time, with warping bouys set out so engineless vessels could clear harbors. He also use sweeps to move the boat.

I've read it three or four times now and always find something new.

One of the more amusing quotes was this-

" it is a sad fact that I bought my first boat on a Wednesday, sailed her away on a Thursday, and found her wrecked on a Friday"

His seamanship improved considerably before he passed away.

[David VanDenburgh]

A great title that hasn't yet appeared here is Richard Bode's First You Have to Row a Little Boat: Reflections on Life and Living. This is the book I wish I'd authored.

Written as an expiation for his sin of omission - failing to teach his children how to sail - Bode shares his romance with the sea, which began when he moved to Long Island as a young boy to live with his aunt and uncle, and strings together some beautifully poetic prose. Absolutely fantastic.

One other suggestion is Homer's Odyssey. It has the sea, complete with storms and the hot little nymph Calypso, monsters, blood and guts (although too long delayed for my liking), the anthropomorphic Phaeecian ships, and a happy ending to boot - unless, of course, you were hoping Penelope would leave the dang loom and get on with life.