Other Cruising Books

Amazon description

Marine SSB Radio for "Idi-Yachts"® A Guide for Using Marine Single Sideband Radio , by Captain Marti Brown, is a completely revised edition of her guide on how to use a marine SSB radio – for cruisers by a cruiser. Learn how to use your Marine SSB radio the easy way! The second edition has 172 pages with new and expanded sections on: Digital Selective Calling,East & West Coast Weather & Traffic Nets, NAVTEX, Weather Fax, Voice Weather Broadcasts, Emergency Hailing Frequencies, Weather Routing, SSB Radio Installation & Troubleshooting and A handy removable Quick Reference Guide to keep by the radio Also new in this edition is a mail-in offer for a free CD ROM loaded with over 100 informational files, software demos and audio sounds. It is an easy to read reference guide that describes all of the emergency, hailing, and working frequencies, SSB, HAM weather and traffic nets, voice weather, and weather fax frequencies. It explains how to send email and how to make phone calls with your marine SSB radio.

Amazon description

The latest in Captain Marti Brown's popular Idi-Yacht series of books is her radio manual for the Icom M802 SSB/HAM DSC radio. It is a guide for the installation and use of the popular Icom radio. Learn how to set up and use your Icom M802 SSB/HAM & DSC radio the easy way! This book translates the Greek of electronics to help you painlessly get up and running on this best-selling recreational SSB radio. Capt. Marti's manual covers the basics on how to install the radio, providing step-by-step instructions so that you can either install the radio yourself or use the textbook to oversee a hired technician's work. The Icom M802 Radio Manual for Idi-Yachts will teach you how to easily navigate the radio such as changing frequencies for voice transmissions, weather broadcasts or radio nets. Sending and receiving all types of Digital Selective Calling transmissions is a breeze as it is described by the author in easy to read English.

Amazon description

Yoga Onboard is a practical guide that offers creative alternatives to adapting traditional yoga postures to a sailing vessel. Using various parts of the boat as props, Kim demonstrates how easy it is to create a yoga practice on whatever size boat you are on. The ideas presented can be applied to any circumstance or location allowing your practice to travel with you. Some of the benefits of a regular yoga practice include increased strength and flexibility, restored energy, and harmony between the body and mind. As your practice deepens you will find that applying the principles of your practice into your life becomes second nature.

Women and Cruising description

Kim Hess is a full-time yoga instructor in Miami Beach and passionate not only about yoga but the sailing lifestyle. Her book, DVD and seminars show you how to adapt yoga to the spaces aboard your boat.

Amazon description

This book for sailing parents, whether they daysail or cruise for extended periods, with much practical advice from child health and safety to educating and amusing children out of the school.

Amazon description

This book, based on 13 years of research and personal experience, is the bible on boating with babies and children. Immensely practical and highly entertaining, it contains a wealth of information on every aspect of the business, including: Introducing children to sailing ideas to keep them from being bored on board, and tips for turning a mutineer into a midshipman; Safety and suitability of different types of yacht; features to look for and those to avoid; Dinghies suitable for use as both tender and sailing craft; Personal safety and an in depth look at the different types of children's lifejackets; ideas to help you cope with seasickness, or even avoid it altogether; absolutely everything you need to know about sailing or cruising with a baby; ocean cruising with kids, including home education.

Women and Cruising comments

Jill Dickin Schinas' book "Kids in the Cockpit" deals with every conceivable aspect of sailing and cruising with children from babyhood through to the teenage years.

Amazon description

Sailing can be a rich educational experience - but valuable, transferable learning won't just happen by itself. With this learning guide, sailors can lead their children through relevant, fun, hands-on learning experiences that link to national and state curricula. Whether you're setting off on a summer cruise, an ocean crossing, or committing to a year of home schooling, this guide will make learning a family experience that is easy, practical, and enjoyable. This volume includes detailed units that any family can follow on a boat, including lessons in Science, Mathematics, the Humanities, and Physical Education. Each unit contains information on materials required (selected for practicality on a boat), differentiating lessons for children of different ages, tips for enrichment and cross-curricular links, and suggested resources to support learning. The appendix lists links to national and state curricula from the United States, Canada, Australia, and the U.K. so that home schooling students can keep pace with science and mathematics content and expectations in their home systems. Never fear: given a solid boat, a well-prepared crew, and sensible precautions, the ocean can be a safe place to bring your child, and an educational one, too!

Amazon description

Good-bye, Old School. Hello, Bold School!

In 2005, Maya Frost and her husband sold everything and left their suburban American lifestyle behind in order to have an adventure abroad. The tricky part: they had to shepherd their four teenage daughters through high school and into college. This hilarious and conspiratorial how-to handbook describes the affordable, accessible, and stunningly advantageous options they stumbled upon that any American student can leverage to get an outrageously relevant global education.

Ready to ditch the drama of the traditional hypercompetitive SAT/AP/GPA path? Meet the bold American students who are catapulting into the global economy at twenty with a red-hot college diploma, sizzling 21st-century skills, a blazing sense of direction–and no debt.

You’ll discover:
• the one thing preventing your student from blasting forward
• why Advanced Placement isn’t so advanced
• why international programs fail to provide a truly global education
• the most critical time for your student to study abroad
• the best exchange program in the world ($3,000 or less per year)
• the strategic way to fast-forward through high school
• how to maximize a family sabbatical
• how to live the life of your dreams abroad–and save thousands for college

Packed with myth-busting facts, laughable loopholes, insider insights, astonishing success stories, and poignant tales from the Frost daughters themselves, this inspiring romp is guaranteed to get you cheering.

Women and Cruising comments

Cindy Lesher, who cruised Duchess in the Caribbean with ther family (they are now land-traveling) recommends Maya Frost's blog and book on education.

Amazon description

Covers everything that you need to know for bringing your pet along with you when sailing or boating. How to potty train, what and how to feed your pet, animal care and upkeep, pet etiquette, kennel training, pet fashions, first aid and safety and foreign travel. Plus, opinions, stories and answers from dog and cat owners who can't leave their pets at home

Amazon description

This book is written primarily for people cruising aboard boats or RV boondocking with pets, throughout the world in areas with limited veterinary facilities. It covers ways that you, as a pet owner with common sense and a few skills, may be able to treat temporarily until professional care is available. Updated and complete information is provided on how to prepare your pet for the greatest chance of obtaining an import permit into the greatest number of countries. The book now includes a rating system to rate various procedures according to degree of difficulty and possible risk to the patient. Includes suggested lists of drugs and supplies, again rated according to user skill level and duration of cruise. A drug formulary is provided which gives proper drug dosages for many medications. This book is also applicable to backwoods travelers, international travelers, and those spending substantial time in areas where veterinary services are unavailable. Suggested retail price is $35 to $36.

Amazon description

A handsomely bound omnibus edition of Patrick O'Brian's seafaring classics, including three chapters of the unfinished twenty-first novel.

The recent release of the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World has focused even more attention on the publishing phenomenon of the late Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels about the Royal Navy in the age of Nelson. These five volumes, beautifully produced and boxed, contain over 7,000 pages of what has often been described as a single, continuous narrative. They are a perfect tribute to such a literary achievement, and a perfect gift for the serious O'Brian enthusiast. 5 volumes, boxed, 1396 pages each volume.

Amazon description

June 1808, somewhere west of Nicaragua-a site suitable for spectacular sea battles. The Admiralty has ordered Captain Horatio Hornblower, now in command of the thirty-six-gun HMS Lydia, to form an alliance against the Spanish colonial government with an insane Spanish landowner; to find a water route across the Central American isthmus; and "to take, sink, burn or destroy" the fifty-gun Spanish ship of the line Natividad or face court-martial. A daunting enough set of orders-even if the happily married captain were not woefully distracted by the passenger he is obliged to take on in Panama: Lady Barbara Wellesley.

Amazon description

When HMS Beagle sailed out of Devonport on 27 December 1831, Charles Darwin was twenty-two and setting off on the voyage of a lifetime. His journal, here reprinted in a shortened form, shows a naturalist making patient observations concerning geology, natural history, people, places and events. Volcanoes in the Galapagos, the Gossamer spider of Patagonia and the Australasian coral reefs – all are to be found in these extraordinary writings. The insights made here were to set in motion the intellectual currents that led to the most controversial book of the Victorian age: The Origin of Species.

Amazon description

Three novels in one! Sixteen-year-old Richard Bolitho joins the British Royal Navy as a young midshipman. Follow his adventures as he undergoes a severe initiation into the dangerous world of the great sailing warships! 1. Richard Bolitho: Midshipman 1772: a young Richard Bolitho joins the 74-gun Gorgon. Naive and untested, Bolitho must learn the ways of the navy quickly if he is to survive. 2. Midshipman Bolitho and the Avenger 1773: Bolitho returns home to Cornwall for Christmas, but smuggling, ship wrecking and witchcraft tear apart his once-peaceful community. 3. Band of Brothers 1774: Bolitho stands on the brink of manhood and takes his examination to begin his true career as a King's Officer. But soon he must test his mettle against vicious smugglers!

Amazon description

MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY is the thrilling account of the strange, eventful, and tragic voyage of His Majesty's Ship Bounty in 1788-1789, which culminated in Fletcher Christian's mutiny against Captain Bligh.

Amazon description

A Breathtaking adventure of the high seas-and a true story

In 1834, Richard Henry Dana went from Harvard student to common seaman, sailing from California to Cape Horn. This journal survives as one of the most vivid accounts of the relationship between man and sea-and still rings true as a portrayal of man-s endurance.

Amazon description

The epic tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War forms one of the earliest and greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural and supernatural threats - shipwrecks, battles, monsters and the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon - Odysseus must test his bravery and native cunning to the full if he is to reach his homeland safely and overcome the obstacles that, even there, await him.

Amazon description

In 1938, and eighteen year-old boy signed on for the round trip from Europe to Australia in the last commercial sailing fleet to make that formidable journey. The four-masted barque Moshulu ended up as a dockside restaurant in Philadelphia; the young apprentice went on to become one of the greatest travel writers of this century. The Last Grain Race is Eric Newby's spellbinding account of this time spent on the Moshulu's last voyage in the Australian grain trade.

As always, Eric Newby's sharp eye for detail captures the hardships, danger, squabbles, companionship and sheer joy of shipboard life - bedbugs, ferocious storms, eccentric Finnish crew and all. By pure chance, Eric witnesses the passing of the era of a sail, and his take is all the more significant for being the last of its kind.

 

Amazon description

It seemed like a good idea. Tired of everyday life ashore, Farley Mowat would find a sturdy boat in Newfoundland and roam the salt sea over, free as a bird. What he found was the worst boat in the world, and she nearly drove him mad. The Happy Adventure, despite all that Farley and his Newfoundland helpers could do, leaked like a sieve. Her engine only worked when she felt like it. Typically, on her maiden voyage, with the engine stuck in reverse, she backed out of the harbour under full sail. And she sank, regularly.

How Farley and a varied crew, including the intrepid lady who married him, coaxed the boat from Newfoundland to Lake Ontario is a marvellous story. The encounters with sharks, rum-runners, rum and a host of unforgettable characters on land and sea make this a very funny book for readers of all ages.

Amazon description

Captain Joshua Slocum's solo voyage around the world in the 37-foot sloop the Spray in 1895 undoubtedly stands as one of the greatest sea adventures of all time. His classic narrative of this 46,000 mile circumnavigation of the globe continues to enjoy immense popularity throughout the world.

Amazon description

The Long Way recounts the incredible story of Bernard Moitessier's participation in the first Golden Globe Race a solo, non-stop circumnavigation rounding the three great Capes of Good Hope, Leeuwin, and the Horn. For seven months, the veteran seafarer battled storms, doldrums, gear failures, and knock-downs, as well as overwhelming fatigue and loneliness. Then, nearing the finish with victory in hand, Moitessier suddenly pulled out of the race and sailed on. His 37,455-mile journey continued for another three months, finally ending in Tahiti. Never once in all that time had he touched land.

Amazon description

The year was 1765. Eminent botanist Philibert Commerson had just been appointed to a grand new expedition: the first French circumnavigation of the world. As the ships’ official naturalist, Commerson would seek out resources—medicines, spices, timber, food—that could give the French an edge in the ever-accelerating race for empire.

Jeanne Baret, Commerson’s young mistress and collaborator, was desperate not to be left behind. She disguised herself as a teenage boy and signed on as his assistant. The journey made the twenty-six-year-old, known to her shipmates as “Jean” rather than “Jeanne,” the first woman to ever sail around the globe. Yet so little is known about this extraordinary woman, whose accomplishments were considered to be subversive, even impossible for someone of her sex and class.

When the ships made landfall and the secret lovers disembarked to explore, Baret carried heavy wooden field presses and bulky optical instruments over beaches and hills, impressing observers on the ships’ decks with her obvious strength and stamina. Less obvious were the strips of linen wound tight around her upper body and the months she had spent perfecting her masculine disguise in the streets and marketplaces of Paris.

Expedition commander Louis-Antoine de Bougainville recorded in his journal that curious Tahitian natives exposed Baret as a woman, eighteen months into the voyage. But the true story, it turns out, is more complicated.

In The Discovery of Jeanne Baret, Glynis Ridley unravels the conflicting accounts recorded by Baret’s crewmates to piece together the real story: how Baret’s identity was in fact widely suspected within just a couple of weeks of embarking, and the painful consequences of those suspicions; the newly discovered notebook, written in Baret’s own hand, that proves her scientific acumen; and the thousands of specimens she collected, most famously the showy vine bougainvillea.

Ridley also richly explores Baret’s awkward, sometimes dangerous interactions with the men on the ship, including Baret’s lover, the obsessive and sometimes prickly naturalist; a fashion-plate prince who, with his elaborate wigs and velvet garments, was often mistaken for a woman himself; the sour ship’s surgeon, who despised Baret and Commerson; even a Tahitian islander who joined the expedition and asked Baret to show him how to behave like a Frenchman.

But the central character of this true story is Jeanne Baret herself, a working-class woman whose scientific contributions were quietly dismissed and written out of history—until now. Anchored in impeccable original research and bursting with unforgettable characters and exotic settings, The Discovery of Jeanne Baret offers this forgotten heroine a chance to bloom at long last.