Driven by an unfettered appetite for personal challenge and a yen for the path of most resistance, Willis mounted a single-handed and wholly unlikely rescue in the jungles of French Guiana and then twice crossed the broad Pacific on rafts of his own design, with only housecats and a parrot for companionship. His first voyage, atop a ten-ton balsa monstrosity, was undertaken in 1954 when Willis was sixty. His second raft, having crossed eleven thousand miles from Peru, found the north shore of Australia shortly after Willis's seventieth birthday. A marvel of vigor and fitness, William Willis was a connoisseur of ordeal, all but orchestrating short rations, ship-wreck conditions, and crushing solitude on his trans-Pacific voyages. He'd been inspired by Kon-Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl's bid to prove that a primitive raft could negotiate the open ocean. Willis's trips confirmed that a primitive man could as well. Willis survived on rye flour and seawater, sang to keep his spirits up, communicated with his wife via telepathy, suffered from bouts of temporary blindness, and eased the intermittent pain of a double hernia by looping a halyard around his ankles and dangling upside-down from his mast. Rich with vivid detail and wry humor, Seaworthy is the story of a sailor you've probably never heard of but need to know. In an age when countless rafts were adrift on the waters of the world, their crews out to shore up one theory of ethno-migration or tear down another, Willis's challenges remained refreshingly personal. His methods were eccentric, his accomplishments little short of remarkable. Don't miss the chance to meet this singular monk of the sea.

    I was in the air flying, when my vision went completely and I waited in fearful darkness for the inevitable crash. Usually I woke to find myself clawing at a window or a wall trying to escape. In view of what happened later I wonder if this was a sort of 'Experiment with Time' experience, or just a coincidence.' Born in 1901, at the age of eighteen and with a taste for adventure, Francis Chichester emigrated to New Zealand with only ten pounds in his pocket. With the impetuousness of youth, he tried his hand at a myriad of jobs, some more successful than others, and by the age of twenty-six, had been a farmhand, a boxer, a shepherd, a lumberjack, a member of three trade Unions - the Firemen's, the miners' and the Timber Workers' - a railway worker, a gold prospector, a coal miner, a door-to-door salesman, and a land agent. And it was only then that his real adventures began. It would be from a chance business venture that Chichester would discover the passion for travel that would become his life. With a fellow risk-taker, he helped to establish an early aviation company and began to fly the planes - though not necessarily with an immediate talent. But enthusiasm and experience made him a leader of the field, and in 1929 he embarked on his most famous flight: a solo enterprise in the Gypsy Moth from England to Australia. He was only the second person ever to accomplish this feat. A great sailor as well as aviator, further journeys came hot on the heels of Chichester's achievements in the air - including winning a trans-Atlantic race in the yacht Gipsy Moth III - and in 1967 he was knighted. The Lonely Sea and the Sky is Sir Francis Chichester's acclaimed autobiography; a tale of ardour and adventure, of intrepid endeavours on land, on the sea and in the air, and of the physical and mental challenges he faced. The life and sheer temerity of his undertakings mark Sir Francis Chichester as a true old-fashioned adventurer.

    The Magic Bus is becoming a national shrine, a holy pilgrim site, a modern-day Mecca. And I was determined to see it, too." So writes author and adventurer Ken Ilgunas, who, in the summer of 2011, moved up to Alaska and, like thousands before him, embarked on pilgrimage to explore the storied bus of the Stampede Trail, the very bus in which Chris McCandless of "Into the Wild" died twenty years before. What was supposed to be little more than a "literary tour" to a bus from a book that Ilgunas had "merely enjoyed" would become a humorous, enthralling, and, at times, treacherous journey, leading him to the very heart of Alaska.

    Alone at sea for 310 days on his 37-foot cutter EGREGIOUS, he covered 38,000 miles in five difficult passages. He became the first American to round Cape Horn alone, complete one of the longest solo passages of all time, and make the fastest solo circumnavigation ever in a monohull.He writes at the outset: 'I will know defeat, despair, fear, beauty, serenity and peace. I will be tested far beyond anything I have ever imagined.' And tested he was--by storms, three capsizes, hurricane force winds, cyclones, week-long calms, sleet, snow, frostbite. He endured to experience exhilaration and accomplishment in solitude , and the peace of being in supreme harmony with the sea-world around him."STORM PASSAGE is about the first of legendary writer/sailor Webb Chiles' now five circumnavigations, all made without sponsorship, shore teams, PR agents, or any means of calling for help. Many talk loosely about living on the edge. Webb Chiles has for decades.

    But this isn’t one of them. Totally free of hyperbole and exaggeration,  A Drop in the Ocean  is an honest and genuine account of what it is really like to cross a very big ocean, on a very small sailboat, for the very first time...When you raise the sails and head into the unknown, you take on the most fascinating challenge of your life. But you also embark upon a voyage of an entirely different nature. As the initial fear of the unknown slowly gives way to the daily rhythm of life at sea, something entirely unexpected happens. This book is one woman’s attempt to describe the nature and effect of this subtle transformation. Praise for A Drop in The Ocean A Drop in the Ocean is a book for anyone curious to read an honest account of how challenging, inspiring, and ultimately rewarding it can be to venture across the open water with only your vessel, experience, and wits to guide you. Along with describing the realities of exhaustion, seasickness, and bruises, Jasna also interweaves moments of magic and this why her book is so important. A Drop in the Ocean doesn’t romanticize an ocean crossing but shows both its difficulty and also its enchantment. These are the pleasures of ocean sailing that can only be experienced firsthand or read about in books like Jasna’s. The beauty of the ocean is not just found when the wind and waves are perfect and in the right direction, but in what the sea forces you to do when they are not. Jasna’s personal realizations and her final sense of achievement are a straightforward, honest, and accurate portrayal of a first time ocean voyage. There are still places in the world that many people will never visit, like the famed islands of the South Pacific and luckily there are also still people in the world adventurous enough to travel across an ocean by sailboat to experience them firsthand and share those stories with us.. Charlotte Kaufman, Author, sailor and founder of Women Who Sail.

    Jones survives storms, dismastings, arrest by the Soviet Navy, being sunk by whales, and the smuggling of Edam cheese and Barbary apes. Through his eyes we get to meet an intriguing cast of dockside characters: Karl, the German fish-canning salesman; Pete, the Australian smuggler; Sissie, the Englishwoman who wheedles her way permanently aboard; and Nelson, Jones' three-legged dog.

    Readers who enjoyed Too Much Tuscan Sun will welcome this second book, which includes even more episodes from the author’s life growing up as a Chiantigiano.

    This is a story about one couple who made that dream come true. The author shares what it feels like to experience ultimate freedom, and outlines the steps they took to get there. The story includes tales from their travels, social commentary on the state of today's American society, and a simple financial plan that will benefit anyone, regardless of their future goals. Throughout the narrative the reader is treated to dolphins and manatees, pelicans and osprey, blue skies, blue water and white sand beaches. Tropical music plays a role as well. Read how music inspired them to execute their plan. Follow along as they transform from everyday working drones to carefree boat bums and beachcombers. This book will make you rethink how you look at life, and money.

    in his home.Dan recounts the first trip day by day, the highs of being a homeowner where every room has a view that can change daily, the lows of having steam burst from below deck and an overheating engine and everything in between from the perfect natural surrounds to the long hard days of lock working.After the long trip home we are then given a view of his first year onboard as Tilly the narrowboat is transformed into a full time home and the seasons bring their own tint to boat life, particularly a winter that wont soon be forgotten.Written with honesty and humour Dan gives readers an insight into living on a boat, his own life and personality and why people in his local area instantly know who someone is referring to when they say "The Narrowboat Lad".

    His inland forays are unique in the literature of circumnavigators as he finds danger, humor, friendship and romance in places most sailors will never visit. James' story unfolds in his earnest exploration of distant lands and seas, his meditations on the people whose lives he touched, and his greater voyage to explore his own private ocean of solitude.His adventure is not merely an attempt to seek thrills, nor even to tempt death, but rather a voyage of discovery as he set out in the direction of his youthful dreams to meet the life he imagined."Go seek what you will, where you will,but be a seeker all of your life."-James Baldwin

    A year later they had sold their business, rented out their house, and were setting out to circumnavigate the globe in a 40-year-old yacht. Their entire sailing experience consisted of six afternoons on the Ottawa River.Over the next four years, squeezed into quarters no bigger than the Stuemers’ old bedroom, the family of five would become seasoned mariners. They would battle deadly storms at sea and evade real-life pirates. Dodge waterspouts and lightning strikes and witness the bombing of the USS Cole. See the staggering beauty of Borneo’s rainforest, and its destruction from logging. Be arrested at gunpoint and entertained like visiting royalty. In all, they would visit 34 countries and cover 35,000 nautical miles.Almost everywhere they went, the family made lasting friendships. They learned to trust each other and embrace opportunity, and in Kenya they learned the true meaning of humanity. As Northern Magic pushed onward, many thousands followed the family’s progress in Diane’s dispatches to the Ottawa Citizen, and thousands more turned out to cheer when the amazing Stuemers came home.

     Join Glen and Julie as they continue around the world through less traveled, dangerous areas on the far side of the world. Turmoil in the Mideast convinces Glen and Julie to linger in the South Pacific visiting primitive villages on remote islands. But hang on tight, because to finish their voyage they must leave friendly shores and navigate through trouble in the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea before arriving in Europe.Full of dry wit and compelling descriptions, Julie takes the reader along for the ride of a lifetime in this sequel (book 2 of the Escape Series) to her previous bestseller, Escape from the Ordinary. GREAT PEOPLE, PLACES AND PROSE From natives in penis sheaths on tropical islands to tribesmen on camels in the desert, this gripping story satisfies hardcore sailors and armchair adventurers alike. You will want an atlas by your side as you travel from one epic adventure to the next as the intrepid couple immerse themselves and you, the reader, in places such as:  -Vanuatu-New Caledonia-New Zealand-Lord Howe Island-Australia-Bali-Borneo-Indonesia-Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand-Maldives Islands-Djibouti-Eritrea-Sudan-Egypt-Turkey-Malta

    

    This oral history of the famed hotel peers behind the iconic façade and delves into the mayhem, madness, and brilliance that stemmed from the hotel in the 1980s and 1990s. Providing a window into the late Bohemia of New York during that time, countless interviews and firsthand accounts adorn this social history of one of the most celebrated and culturally significant landmarks in New York City.

    Thus began the legendary ordeal of Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men. When their ship was finally crushed between two ice floes, they attempted a near-impossible journey over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization.In Endurance, the definitive account of Ernest Shackleton's fateful trip, Alfred Lansing brilliantly narrates the harrowing and miraculous voyage that has defined heroism for the modern age.