Off Season Sailing Reading...

[RichardS]

What are you reading in the winter months when (for most of us) we are not sailing? Here is my evolving list:

Five Fair Rivers by Robert de Gast. A delightful, amusing and informative account of him sailing his small boat (a Dovekie) from the Chesapeake to the end of their navigable water.

Western Wind, Eastern Shore (same author) With a different small wooden sailboat he restored, he circumnavigates the Delaware/Maryland, Virginia peninsula in his off the beaten path style and with some of the usual mishaps.

Both books are from a few decades back, I think. Would be fun to do again and see what has changed. He read old accounts (John Smith, others from early 1900s) and compares his perceptions with theirs.

The Arts of the Sailor: Knotting, Splicing, and Ropework. A reprint of a 1953 classic, with  great pen and ink drawings of the knots, splices, etc. Trying to up my game in this area, for fun and because we use a lot of this knowledge and practice on the historic Jamestown ships.


How about you?

[Krusen]

deGast is a skilled writer, photographer, and sailor.

5 fair rivers is good.

Western wind, eastern shore is a classic. 

I have read it twice, and planned to make a somewhat similar trip with Phil Mac Call, in his Compac 23 Pilot house.  He had also read the book.  Attempting to recreate a voyage is a fools errand, but using the original as an inspiration, but sailing as the wind dictates, or suggests, is the only way to have an enjoyable voyage.
We planned a counter clockwise trip, as the wind usually favors that choice.  deGast had his own reasons for clockwise.
Covid delayed the start, and old age over ran my body, so we will not go.

I may read the book again!

No Longer KRUSE'N 

[Quantico Frank]

Ok, guys, you sold me. Picking up "Western wind...." Looks like it's out of print so I found a "bargain" on eBay. It was SUCH a bargain that I have to hope that at least the binding is still holding it together. If it's still serviceable after I finish it, I'll put it back up for adoption here.

[DBthal]

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Here are the books that I enjoy when Winter armchair cruising.

Some are well known small boat adventure titles. Two lesser known books that I just re-read are:

• "Sailing Small" by Stan Grayson.  This is a collection of eight accounts of people cruising on small sailboats. One of the sailors has his Rob Roy 23 moored a couple of miles from me. He is still going strong into his mid-eighties.  One chapter in the book details his trailer sailor cruise from Maine to the Bahamas. 
• "Penelope Down East" by W. R. Cheney. The author cruises the Maine Coast in his Marshall 22' catboat.

Dan

[Riggerdood]

One that some might enjoy is called Godforsaken Sea, by Derek Lundy. It's the story of the 1996-1997 Vendee Globe, and his descriptions of the conditions in the Southern Ocean will make your spine tingle!

[Ida Lewis]

Love learning about the recommendations thus far. Thank you!

Here are a few of my favorites over the years, with ISBNs when I have them, more or less in the order I saw them on the shelf...

Sail Power: The Complete Guide to Sails and Sail Handling by Wallace Ross, 0-394-7271540. Technical. very few people could use this and not become a better sailor. A darn shame it's out of print.

Cruising Under Sail by Eric C. Hiscock, out of print, historical classic; much is still valuable, great illustrative photos [I have the British version, thus no ISBN, but it was published in the U.S. by Oxford Press]. Last printed in 1960, I believe

The Boat Who Wouldn't Float by Farley Mowat who is one of my favorite authors, 0-553-27788x. True story, funny, and so well written.

Women Sailors and Sailors' Women: An Untold Maritime History by David Cordingly, 0-375-75872-0. Includes a section on Ida Lewis, the namesake for my first boat and my Trailer-Sailor handle.

Folklore and the Sea by Horace Beck, a former Middlebury College professor, 0-7858-1119-2. Academic, well-researched and end-noted, seemingly well cited... and yet often funny.

Sailing: A Dictionary for Landlubbers, Old Salts, & Armchair Drifters by Henry Beard & Roy McKie, 0-89480-144-9. Decidedly NOT academic; fun sporadic comic relief. [Example: "Fitting out" -- Series of maintenance tasks performed on boats ashore during good-weather weekends in spring and summer months to make them ready for winter storage.]

My Old Man and the Sea: A Father and Son Sail Around Cape Horn by David Hays and Daniel Hays, 0-06-097696-9. They hand built a 25-foot sloop and became the first Americans to sail around the horn in a sailing vessel under 30', but the book is also much about their relationship. The father was the founding Artistic Director of the National Theatre of the Deaf.

Riggerdood mentioned Derek Lundy who is a good storyteller... Lundy also wrote "The Way of a Ship", 0-06-093537-5. An account of his crewing and experience aboard one of the last operating square-riggers, including around the Horn.

Most of us probably know Sailing Around the World by Capt. Joshua Slocum, 0-911378-20-0, but it needs to be mentioned on this thread.

Similarly, one cannot, in my opinion, posit good sailing reads without exuberantly mentioning the incomparable Aubrey-Maturin series (20 full, plus one unfinished, novels taking place in British Royal Navy during the peri-Napoleonic Wars and War of 1812 era) written by Patrick O'Brian. Sorry, I'm not up to repeating the 21 ISBNs. Best to read in order: the first book is "Master and Commander" [and nothing like the eponymous unremarkable-but-worth-watching movie starring Russell Crow, the plot of which amalgamates several of the O'Brian novels]. My spouse, an avid reader who is especially appreciative of good writing and richly developed characters, rebuffed my years-long suggestions to try this series. Finally, maybe 6 or 7 years ago, desperately seeking something to read whilst stuck at home, she picked up Master and Commander. She is now talking about reading the entire series again for the fourth time. Good thing for marital fair winds that we have two complete sets!

[davepowell]

Not sailing, but Life on the Mississippi by Rinker Buck details building a flatboat and travelling the Mississippi to New Orleans. Interesting reading, particularly navigating around barges.

[talbot]

One that some might enjoy is called Godforsaken Sea, by Derek Lundy. It's the story of the 1996-1997 Vendee Globe, and his descriptions of the conditions in the Southern Ocean will make your spine tingle!

I remember this one. Not planning to circumnavigate Antarctica any time soon.

[Quantico Frank]

I finished "Western Wind, Eastern Shore" by de Gast, and now I'm looking for "Five Fair Rivers." I agree he's a great, readable writer. WWES is really interesting—- he obviously has little fear of running aground and does so often. He mentions that while it's possible to sail this way in the Chesapeake Bay region with the mud or sand bottoms, you can't get away with it in Dan's region, Maine— or maybe you can do it once . I admire his willingness to sail up what sounds like relatively narrow tributaries with all the tacking that must involve.

I also now have this one on order: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000J4ZWDM?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

[Riggerdood]

I remember this one. Not planning to circumnavigate Antarctica any time soon.

Me neither! 

[Riggerdood]

I also now have this one on order: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000J4ZWDM?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

That one looks very interesting Frank.