Winter nautical reading

[John Vigor]

Nothing much to do with good old boats, I'm afraid. One third of the way through Jack Maggs, by Peter Carey. Just finished Disgrace, by J. M. Coetzee; and Secret Africa, by Lawrence Green.

Although I must admit I'm planning to re-read one of the most thrilling sailing books I've ever come across, 4 Winds of Adventure by Marcel Bardiaux. I keep coming back to it every couple of years, and each time I'm amazed by what this man accomplished.

And I might just take another look at another splendid book the Washington (DC) Times weekend review describes this way:

"Not since Robert Manry's 'Tinkerbelle' in 1965 has there been a true sailing story as fresh and authentic as Small Boat to Freedom (Lyons Press, $21.95, 288 pages)."

It's out of print now, of course, so the author has nothing to gain by promoting it.

John V.

[Troy Scott]

Good! Let's get that editor to clean up some of that hard-to-read Shakespeare while he's at it! Just kidding!

Seriously, I do appreciate the link.

[Len]

Sea of Poppies- Amitah Ghosh (fiction- period piece with nice linguistic details)
Empires of the Seas - Roger Crowley (History of the seige of Malta. etc the last sea battle with the Islamic world)
Mutiny-Hagberg and Gindin (Biograpgy - the true story of hunt for red october)

Enjoy

Len

[Will Angus]

Just for fun, I would recommend Chasing the Horizon by Cap??n Fatty Goodlander. He???s a real Caribbean Sea gypsy. I found his short stories to be a mix of laugh out loud humor, bizarre antics, and slacker style adventure and somehow, in a very indirect way, he captures the essence of sailing passion.
________
Honda h4 transmission history

[RC James]

by Caroline Alexander/2003/ViingPress

An historical book on the mutiny taken from original manuscripts and diaries of those involved. A little tedious, yet a great story.
If you like Olde Englishe, this is the book for you....nothing de-anglicized here.
And it makes the old B&W movie look like a whitewash. Meet the crew and gain insights into their personality, not to mention the reason England wanted the breadfruits sent to the Carribean.

Bottom line? I won't feel so bad when the crew calls me a
Captaiin Bligh ever again.

[John Stone]

I just finished reading "21," the last volume in Patrick O'Brian's 21 book Aubrey/Maturin series. It took a year to read them all but it is well worth it. If you have not read them I recommend you give it serious thought. They are very addictive. "There's not a moment to lose."

I recently read "My Old Man and the Sea." A quick read. Very good. Father and son sail a 25' Vertue around Cape Horn in 1983-84. Insightful and funny.

My personal favorite "sailing book" is "By the Wind" by Richard Baum. It's out of print (published in 1962) but you can get it used through Alibris.com for about $8.00. A gifted writer, Baum tells of his timeless adventures sailing his engineless 34' Starling Burgess cutter "Little Dipper" (I might add "Little Dipper" is still afloat--I saw it listed for sale last year). He successfully introduces his new wife to offshore sailing (a good spot to take notes!) and devotes a whole chapter to the pleasures of sailing without an engine

Enjoy.

[wsonntag]

What a great pleasure to read all these learned posts - I just hit the local library website to check a few out!

Here is some delightful trashy reading full of abandoned center cockpit fishing boats - with bullet holes and blood stains, missing persons, mysterious damsels. The prose, not all that it could be, but hey, the pace is as fast as a South Florida drug runner's speed boat.

Check out Carl Hiaasen, "Skinny Dip", "Skin Tight" and "Nature Girl".

Back to erudition, I recommend Myron Arms - "Servants of the Fish - A Portrait of Newfoundland after the Great Cod Collapse" A very well balanced description of the forces that lead us to unsustainable use of natural resources and the bitter result of failed policy and economically driven intransigence.

[fenixrises]

Hi all,

Just about any of the early Tristan Jones.

Take care,
Fred

[M. R. Bober]

If you can find a copy of Joseph Mitchell's "Up in the Old Hotel," especially those of you with any connection to New York, read it. Mitchell wrote for the New Yorker when that meant something. "Up in the Old Hotel" is a collection of superb stories associated with the Fulton Fish Market.

I would place "Up in the Old Hotel" with the best books that I have ever taken aboard.

Mitchell Bober
Sunny Lancaster (where Mark Twain is always worth the read,) Va

http://www.amazon.com/Up-Old-Hotel-Jose ... 0679746315

[d1trout]

I have, like many of us on this board, read Patrick O'Brian all the way through a couple of times. Then I discovered the recorded version of the series narrated by Patrick Tull and available as CDs or by download from audible.com. This narrator brings the books to life in a way that is truly remarkable. His range of accents and characterizations is superb. I have listened to them driving around the west and, last fall, sailing from Baja to Puerta Vallarta, I passed a pleasant night watch listening with earphones. Just the thing when you're unable to actually read but want a bit of entertainment.

Happy listening!
Dick Galland

[Riptide]

Here's a link to a letter Jack London wrote about Small-Boat Sailing.

http://www.jacklondons.net/smallboating.html

[MFC]

Hi all,

Just about any of the early Tristan Jones.

Take care,
Fred

Agreed Fred. I'm just never sure whether to tell people his tales are true or fiction!

[paul marko]

Two books I have liked are:

N by E Rockwell Kent

les vagabondes des mers de sud by Bernard Moitessier

( I speak and read French ,not good at spelling or writing)

Moitessier does a lot of running up on reefs while thinking about old gril frends, this makes his pasages quite excitng.

best of the new year

Paul Marko

[John Vigor]

Two books I have liked are:

N by E Rockwell Kent

les vagabondes des mers de sud by Bernard Moitessier

( I speak and read French ,not good at spelling or writing)

Moitessier does a lot of running up on reefs while thinking about old gril frends, this makes his pasages quite excitng.

best of the new year

Paul Marko

Paul, Moitessier's book is available in English also: Sailing to the Reefs (Sheridan House). I first met him after he ran his first boat up on a reef in the Indian Ocean. He subsequently built a 28-foot ketch and ran that aground on a reef in the West Indies. He was a real dozy hippie in those days, before he became the guru of eccentric singlehanding.

Cheers,

John V.

[Dean Abramson]

I would recommend any of these heartily:

Albatross, Deborah Scaling Kiley
Capsized: The True Story of Four Men Adrift for 119 Days, Nalepka and Callahan
North to the Night, Simon
Blown Away, Payson
Fastnet Force Ten, Rousmaniere
Small Boat to Freedom, Vigor
Maiden Voyage, Aebi
Flirting with Mermaids, Kretchmer
Dove, Robin Lee Graham
Cruising in Seraffyn, Pardeys
Wayward Sailor, Dalton (about how Tristan Jones was a BS artist)
My Old Man and the Sea, Hays and Hays
Fatal Storm, Mundle (re tragic Sydney-Hobart Race)
Sailing GRACE, Otterbacher

Happy New Year, folks!

Dean