Sea Kayaker's Deep Trouble: True Stories and Their Lessons from Sea Kayaker Magazine ROM Sea Kayaker Magazine


George Gronseth - 1997
    This riveting book offers 20 harrowing, real-life tales of sea kayaking accidents that will not only keep readers on the edge of their seats, but also instruct them with potentially life-saving lessons.

Treasure Islands


Pamela Stephenson - 2005
    They have much in common - a fascination with the South Seas, a thirst for adventure, a fearlessness and great humour in the face of adversity and unpredictable husbands.Compelling, intriguing, unputdownable, Treasure Islands is travel/adventure/history/celebrity all rolled into one extraordinary book.

On the Run: An Angler's Journey Down the Striper Coast


David DiBenedetto - 2003
    Writer and angler David DiBenedetto followed this great migration -- the fall run -- for three months in the autumn of 2001.On the Run offers vivid portrayals of the zany and obsessive characters DiBenedetto met on his travels -- including the country's most daring fisherman, an underwater videographer who chucked his corporate job in favor of filming striped bass, and the reclusive angler who claims that catching the world-record striper in 1982 sent his life into a tailspin. Along his route, DiBenedetto also delves into the natural history and biology of this great game fish, and depicts the colorful cultures of the seaside communities where the striped bass reigns supreme.

Cape Horn


Bernard Moitessier - 1967
    Setting out from Tahiti, they took the logical route because it was the fastest, taking them through the Roaring Forties, through the high latitudes of never ceasing gale-force winds and through iceberg territory. Their survival was due to careful preparation, great seamanship and their sense of harmony with their boat, Joshua, and the sea.

How to Sail Around the World: Advice and Ideas for Voyaging Under Sail


Hal Roth - 2003
    Since then, he's logged more than 200,000 sea miles. Along the way, Roth also has authored eight voyaging classics, including the 1978 bestseller After 50,000 Miles.Taking that book as its starting point, this handsome new volume incorporates the new technologies and discoveries of the last quarter century along with another 150,000 miles of experience.A compendium of mature, time-tested sea wisdom from one of the world's most respected sailing writers, How to Sail Around the World will tell the reader:How to choose and equip a sailboat for long-distance cruising, with an emphasis on simplicity and a modest budgetHow to plan and conduct a voyage anywhere in the worldHow to master the arts of navigation, anchoring, and daily life aboard in exotic placesHow to cope with storms at sea--the most complete and authoritative treatise on this critical topic ever published

Mud, Sweat and Tears - an Irish Woman's Journey of Self-Discovery


Moire O'Sullivan - 2011
    Though tempted to pull out and go home, she reluctantly runs.Little did she know the race up Corrig Mountain would inflict such physical blows: Her lungs catch fire, her legs explode, her heart hits record speeds. And though it’s a gentle summer’s evening back in Dublin, on top of Corrig Mountain the wind screeches and the mist swirls as she lurches and lunges over grass, rocks, and rutted bog. The next morning, everything hurts. But still she perseveres. Every week, she’s battling it out with the other mountain runners, adversaries on the hill. But by 9 pm, she’s joining her new found friends in the pub, discovering the wonderful healing powers of a proper pint. Over the next three years, Moire competes in every mountain race she can find, whatever its shape or form: everything from ten kilometre sprints up summits, to one hundred kilometre runs requiring map and compass. She even dabbles in adventure racing, doing multi-day multi-sport races in teams of four in the barren wastelands of Ireland and Scotland. But it is not until she sets her sights on the still unconquered Wicklow Round that she finally finds her nemesis. In July 2008, Moire made a solo attempt on the Wicklow Round, a gruelling endurance run spanning a hundred kilometres over twenty six of Ireland’s remotest mountain peaks. After twenty one and a half hours she collapsed, two summits from the end. Battered and bruised yet undeterred, she returned a year later to become the first person ever to complete the challenge.This is her story.

Worse things happen (I think I'll go to sea Book 2)


Bob Jackson - 2015
    These memoirs take him from enjoying the odd cold beer sailing peacefully across the Indian Ocean to being trapped in a war zone. Here he sees life at sea changing from the leisurely days of general cargoes to the hectic computerised containerships. He seems to have done it all – rescuing drug runners from the ice, dredging aggregates in the North Sea and finally skippering a ‘steamer’ on a tranquil lake. This volume is the second of Bob’s memoirs covering his service as master on a wide variety of ships. The first book ‘I think I’ll go to sea’ relates to his experiences climbing up through the ranks. In this book he has to flee the USA to avoid arrest for drug smuggling, assists rescuing a ship’s crew when their ship sinks in pack ice and gets stuck in the middle of the Iraq/Iran war. He also experiences alcohol free ships which take away the pleasure of his ‘cold beer’

Plunge – One Woman’s Pursuit of a Life Less Ordinary


Liesbet Collaert - 2020
    When she swaps life as she knows it for an uncertain future on a sailboat, she succumbs to seasickness and a growing desire to be alone.Guided by impulsiveness and the joys of an alternative lifestyle, she must navigate personal storms, trouble with US immigration, adverse weather conditions, and doubts about her newfound love.Does Liesbet find happiness? Will the dogs outlast the man? Or is this just another reality check on a dream to live at sea?

Eight Men and a Duck: An Improbable Voyage by Reed Boat to Easter Island


Nick Thorpe - 2002
    Inspired by the great Thor Heyerdahl, Buck had recruited seven men to join him on this experiment to discover whether it might have been possible that Polynesia was first settled from South America rather than Asia. But when one of them dropped out a place in the crew became available for Nick. What followed was a somewhat bizarre expedition undertaken by a rather makeshift vessel, a couple of ducks (one of which could have only guessed at its fate) and a group of men, who, when all was said and done, weren't quite sure how to sail a boat. Eight Men and a Duck is a tale of storms, amateur seamen and the occasional shark.

Tenkara: Radically Simple, Ultralight Fly Fishing


Kevin C. Kelleher - 2011
    At the same time, the Tenkara rig can turn over a cast of such grace that it nearly guarantees a light and effective presentation. Casting is so simple it is nearly intuitive, and can be learned in minutes.

The Arts of the Sailor: Knotting, Splicing and Ropework


Hervey Garrett Smith - 1953
    While not nearly as much in demand today as they were in the days of the Yankee clippers, these skills nevertheless remain important and necessary to today's yachtsmen and owners of smaller pleasure boats.In this excellent handbook on basic shipboard skills, marine expert Hervey Garrett Smith offers boating and yachting enthusiasts a complete course in rigging, working, and maintaining a ship. More than 100 illustrations help the reader grasp the fundamentals and fine points of handling a ship while the author describes in detail a sailor's tools, basic knots, and useful hitches as well as the arts of splicing, handsewing, and canvas work.Other topics equally important to safe, economical, and efficient boat maintenance and management include belaying, coiling, and stowing; towing procedures; how to make a chafing gear; and much more. Easy-to-follow instructions for fashioning decorative knots, ornamental coverings, and nettings, and even how to make a proper bucket round out this engaging and informative guide.Packed with useful "hands-on" information conveyed in a chatty, humorous style, The Arts of the Sailor is the perfect book to keep aboard ship for study and for ready reference when the need arises. It also makes delightful reading for armchair sailors and the legions of landlubbers with an interest in the sea.

Backcast: Fatherhood, Fly-Fishing, and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska


Lou Ureneck - 2007
    In his memoir of a fishing trip through the Alaskan wilderness, Lou Ureneck brings to life the struggle to reclaim the trust of his teenage son, Adam, following his divorce. Told against the backdrop of the Alaskan wilds, "Backcast" is the remembrance of a fishing trip that carried a father and son from the mountains of Alaska to the Bering Sea. Along the way, nature transforms from friend into foe, and their struggles are played out against the poignant emotional battle raging between the two as they descend the river headed toward confrontation. On their journey, the two encounter nature's dangers -- bears, violent river currents and ruthless, punishing weather -- as well as the hurts that exist between them, the reasons for divorce, the absence of a father and the withheld love of a son. Dipping his hand into the river of his own life, Ureneck recounts his own fatherless childhood, the influence of his mother's boyfriend who helped him learn to fish, and the realization that he himself had done the one thing he always promised himself he would not do: He ended his marriage in divorce. Part adventure story, part reconciliation with life's unexpected turns, and part commentary on the healing power of nature, "Backcast" explores the world of a man confronted by the hard choices divorce can bring to create a moving meditation on fatherhood.

Dynamic Nymphing: Tactics, Techniques, and Flies from Around the World


George Daniel - 2011
    Advanced tight line nymphing tactics, including Czech, Polish, French, Spanish, and American techniques Rigging and fishing dry and droppers, curly Qs, and conventional indicators Fishing the extremes: shallow water, cold weather, high water, wind Casting and technique sequences that include tuck cast, bow and arrow cast, as well as elevating and leading when tight line nymphing62 nymph patterns

Sailing Fundamentals


Gary Jobson - 1987
    Sailing Fundamentals is also used in the programs of yacht clubs, colleges, and sailing groups around the country. Unlike many sailing books, which can reflect the biases and idiosyncrasies of their authors, this book has been extensively pretested to ensure that it offers the fastest, easiest, most systematic way to learn basic sailing and coastal cruising. Widely acclaimed author Gary Jobson has won several major races, including the 1977 America’s Cup victory as tactician aboard Courageous. He was head sailing coach at the US Naval Academy, and has conducted sailing clinics across the country.

The Comeback: How Larry Ellison's Team Won the America's Cup (Kindle Single)


G. Bruce Knecht - 2016
    New Zealand needed just one more win. Oracle ultimately beat back the odds in what's been called the greatest comeback in sport. But was it? G. Bruce Knecht set out to investigate how Oracle turned things around and, most particularly, the source of extra horsepower that seemed to come from nowhere during the final races. What he discovered was that the team was using a sailing technique that was prohibited under the rules. The Comeback is a pulse-pounding account of Oracle's desperate stop-at-nothing campaign.G. Bruce Knecht, a former staff reporter and foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, is the author of three books, including The Proving Ground: The Inside Story of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race. Larry Ellison was a major character in that book as well and it explains how his experience in the race led to his pursuit of the America's Cup. A sailor himself, Knecht raced across the Atlantic in 2005 on the yacht that broke the 100-year-old transatlantic race record.Cover design by Charles Rue Woods.