Legendary account of the author's voyage around Cape Horn in a 32-foot sailboat, sailing east-to-west (thus the Horn is to starboard, or on the right). This is a notoriously difficult and dangerous passage, especially in a boat this size.
In As Long as It’s Fun, the biography of Lin and Larry Pardey, Herb McCormick recounts their remarkable sailing career—from their early days in Southern California to their two circumnavigations to their current life in a quiet cove in New Zealand. Through interviews with their families, friends, and critics, McCormick delves deeply into the couple’s often-controversial opinions, sometimes-tenuous marriage, and amazing list of accomplishments. As Long as It’s Fun is as much a love story as it is a sea yarn, and, like all such stories, it’s not without complications . . . which makes it not only a sailing tale but also a human one.
This book is just what the title says. It is the distillation of what the Lin and Larry learned during more than 47 years of sailing together, years during which they covered more than 210,0000 miles on board their two cutters, Seraffyn and Taleisin, and on scores of other boats they have delivered or raced. Lin and Larry tell how they have sailed in comfort and safety without large cash outlay- on a pay-as-you-earn-as-you-go plan and by simplifying. The first two editions of this invaluable text have seen more than 60,000 copies reach people who dream of setting sail, be it for a weekend voyage across to an offshore island, or for a world circumnavigation. Lin continues voyaging now she is well into her seventh decade of life. Armed with what she is learning as she explores the islands and far corners of the Tasman Sea, she has updated and revised the information found in the original edition plus added several new chapters. Amidst the new material is an extensive look at the lessons learned as Lin and Larry safely negotiated the stormy waters around Cape Horn and beyond. This book could help you cut the ties that bind you to shore.
Since writing the previous edition of Storm Tactics Handbook, Lin and Larry have voyaged an additional 55,000 miles. This has taken them as far north as Norway, twice across the Atlantic, south to Argentina and into the Pacific, around Cape Horn contrary to the prevailing winds then on a North Pacfic circuit. With insights gained from these recent voyages, they have fully revised and expanded this text by more than 40% including seven completely new chapters – among them;
Lessons from Cape Horn,
An interview on storm survival and heaving to with the late Sir Peter Blake,
Heaving-to using a Gale Rider on 55 foot Morgan’s Cloud,
Adding Rudder Protection Stops.
Discussions on avoiding chafe, building and using storm staysails, choosing storm gear, when to deploy para-anchors, tactics for avoiding the worst areas of cyclonic storms and many more have been expanded to answer questions posed by readers and seminar attendees.
A true story of the battered life of a foremast crewman, Two Years Before the Mast is Richard Henry Dana’s classic travel narrative, which inspired canonical works such as Moby Dick and Sailing Alone Around the World. As Rod Scher follows Dana (the Harvard dropout-turned-sailor) on his voyages around North America, he annotates Dana’s tale with critiques, tie-ins to today, and little-known facts about both the book and the milieu of Dana’s time.
"His real name was Arthur Jones. He was born in Liverpool in 1929, the illegitimate son of a working-class Lancashire girl, and he grew up in orphanages with little education. Too young to see action in the World War II naval battles he would later write about so movingly, he joined the Royal Navy in 1946 and served fourteen unremarkable years." "Arthur Jones then bought an old sailboat and tried his hand at smuggling whiskey cross-Channel. In his early thirties he sailed into a Mediterranean limbo, scraping a living from charters by day and haunting the bars of Ibiza by night. When he was drunk, which was often, he could be loud and obnoxious and had the scars to prove it. He had no family, no attachments, no accomplishments." "Then came a midlife sea change. Arthur Jones looked into his future, imagined greatness, and began to claw his way to it. Having taught himself to sail, he taught himself to write. He was a natural at both. As Tristan Jones, in his midforties, he sailed out of Brazil's Mato Grosso and into a Greenwich Village apartment to write six books in three years and reinvent his past." "The Tristan Jones of his books was born in a storm at sea in 1924 on his father's tramp steamer; was torpedoed three times in epic World War II engagements; completed the first circumnavigation of Iceland; traveled farther north and farther up the Amazon River than any sailor before him; and sailed more than 400,000 miles, 180,000 of them solo. Readers loved his books and crowded his lectures and signings. He had a bard's voice and a street performer's delivery. He had more reknown than he could have dreamed." "Having invented a life, Tristan Jones tried to live it. After the amputation of his left leg in 1982 he sailed more than halfway around the world. He lost his right leg in 1991 yet still returned briefly to sea. But as his body failed him, so too did his spirits. It was as if the life from which he'd bodily lifted himself were pulling him down again. He died a bitter man."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved