"Sailors' Secrets is a distillation of boating wisdom unmatched by any other. . . . If I were just starting to collect nautical books, I'd think seriously about getting this one first. I found something new and interesting on every page."--Living Aboard "A delightful, dual-purpose kind of book. You can sit down and read through it for pleasure [and] it makes a fine reference."--Mariner's Log (Houston) "This treasure chest of useful advice is offered in bite-size tidbits that will keep the reader coming back for more."--The Log (San Diego) Sailors' Secrets contains over 1,000 tips, suggestions, evaluations, and nuggets of hard-won advice from more than 300 seasoned veterans. Instructive, humorous, biting, and challenging, Sailors' Secrets can be opened anywhere and enjoyed. Its wide-ranging chapters cover routine maintenance, understanding weather, safety at sea, storm strategies, piloting, engine troubleshooting, gear and outfitting, and simple solutions to complex problems. Michael Badham and Robby Robinson have created the nautical equivalent of an experts' forum. Don Casey, Dennis Conner, Bob Rice, Dave Gerr, Hank Hinckley, Bill Biwenga, Sheila McCurdy, Katy Burke, Meade Gougeon, Buddy Melges, Walter Greene, Steve Callahan, and a host of others share the insights they've developed over millions of sea miles.
From one of the world's most respected sailors-the knowledge and secrets every sailor needs Peter Isler, two-time America's Cup winner, has sailed in and won hundreds of races over the last forty years. In that time, he has acquired a vast array of knowledge about sailing techniques and tactics, not to mention a boatload or two of entertaining stories along the way. In this book, he brings them all together into a single guide to help you make the most of your time on the water, whether you're going for a leisurely sail with friends or competing to win. Filled with tips and secrets every sailor craves, from the international competitor to the weekend dinghy sailor Includes wisdom and advice gleaned from Peter's time spent sailing with top international sailors, from America's Cup veterans Ted Turner, Dennis Conner and Russell Coutts to and three-time Olympic gold medalist Ben Ainslie Covers a range of important sailing topics, including understanding the inner game, leading a team, reading the wind, preparing your boat (and yourself), and much more Filled with information that will help you become a better sailor, Peter Isler's Little Blue Book of Sailing Secrets is an invaluable source of guidance you'll rely on every time you set sail.
In 1887, the social-climbing Cranstons voyage from New York to London, where they hope to find a husband for their awkward older daughter, secretly accompanied by Helena and her mouse siblings, for whom the journey is both terrifying and wondrous as they meet an array of titled humans despite their best efforts to remain hidden. By a Newbery Medalist and multiple award-winning author.
Ilvie Little, the curious elf, has had enough of the beautiful but boring land of the elves and decides to discover the big, wide world.Together with her friends, a cook, and two twinkling companionsthe grumpy dog Sammy and the gluttonous monkey Theoshe wants to solve an ancient riddle.To do this, she must polish up a dusty old ship and go on the search for a lost treasure, withstanding any and all resistance along the way. But the fearless friends conquer all danger.A magical story for strong kids and those who want to become stronga fantastic, courage-inspiring book for reading out loud and reading yourself. For cool kids from 5-99.
The extraordinary untold story of Ernest Hemingway's dangerous secret life in espionage A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A finalist for the William E. Colby Military Writers' Award "IMPORTANT" (Wall Street Journal) • "FASCINATING" (New York Review of Books) • "CAPTIVATING" (Missourian) A riveting international cloak-and-dagger epic ranging from the Spanish Civil War to the liberation of Western Europe, wartime China, the Red Scare of Cold War America, and the Cuban Revolution, Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy reveals for the first time Ernest Hemingway’s secret adventures in espionage and intelligence during the 1930s and 1940s (including his role as a Soviet agent code-named "Argo"), a hidden chapter that fueled both his art and his undoing. While he was the historian at the esteemed CIA Museum, Nicholas Reynolds, a longtime American intelligence officer, former U.S. Marine colonel, and Oxford-trained historian, began to uncover clues suggesting Nobel Prize-winning novelist Ernest Hemingway was deeply involved in mid-twentieth-century spycraft -- a mysterious and shocking relationship that was far more complex, sustained, and fraught with risks than has ever been previously supposed. Now Reynolds's meticulously researched and captivating narrative "looks among the shadows and finds a Hemingway not seen before" (London Review of Books), revealing for the first time the whole story of this hidden side of Hemingway's life: his troubling recruitment by Soviet spies to work with the NKVD, the forerunner to the KGB, followed in short order by a complex set of secret relationships with American agencies. Starting with Hemingway's sympathy to antifascist forces during the 1930s, Reynolds illuminates Hemingway's immersion in the life-and-death world of the revolutionary left, from his passionate commitment to the Spanish Republic; his successful pursuit by Soviet NKVD agents, who valued Hemingway's influence, access, and mobility; his wartime meeting in East Asia with communist leader Chou En-Lai, the future premier of the People's Republic of China; and finally to his undercover involvement with Cuban rebels in the late 1950s and his sympathy for Fidel Castro. Reynolds equally explores Hemingway's participation in various roles as an agent for the United States government, including hunting Nazi submarines with ONI-supplied munitions in the Caribbean on his boat, Pilar; his command of an informant ring in Cuba called the "Crook Factory" that reported to the American embassy in Havana; and his on-the-ground role in Europe, where he helped OSS gain key tactical intelligence for the liberation of Paris and fought alongside the U.S. infantry in the bloody endgame of World War II. As he examines the links between Hemingway's work as an operative and as an author, Reynolds reveals how Hemingway's secret adventures influenced his literary output and contributed to the writer's block and mental decline (including paranoia) that plagued him during the postwar years -- a period marked by the Red Scare and McCarthy hearings. Reynolds also illuminates how those same experiences played a role in some of Hemingway's greatest works, including For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea, while also adding to the burden that he carried at the end of his life and perhaps contributing to his suicide. A literary biography with the soul of an espionage thriller, Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy is an essential contribution to our understanding of the life, work, and fate of one of America's most legendary authors.
On August 14, 1945, Alfred Eisenstaedt took a picture of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, minutes after they heard of Japan’s surrender to the United States. Two weeks later LIFE magazine published that image. It became one of the most famous WWII photographs in history (and the most celebrated photograph ever published in the world’s dominant photo-journal), a cherished reminder of what it felt like for the war to finally be over. Everyone who saw the picture wanted to know more about the nurse and sailor, but Eisenstaedt had no information and a search for the mysterious couple’s identity took on a dimension of its own. In 1979 Eisenstaedt thought he had found the long lost nurse. And as far as almost everyone could determine, he had. For the next thirty years Edith Shain was known as the woman in the photo of V-J Day, 1945, Times Square. In 1980 LIFE attempted to determine the sailor’s identity. Many aging warriors stepped forward with claims, and experts weighed in to support one candidate over another. Chaos ensued. For almost two decades Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi were intrigued by the controversy surrounding the identity of the two principals in Eisenstaedt’s most famous photograph and collected evidence that began to shed light on this mystery. Unraveling years of misinformation and controversy, their findings propelled one claimant’s case far ahead of the others and, at the same time, dethroned the supposed kissed nurse when another candidate’s claim proved more credible. With this book, the authors solve the 67-year-old mystery by providing irrefutable proof to identify the couple in Eisenstaedt’s photo. It is the first time the whole truth behind the celebrated picture has been revealed. The authors also bring to light the couple’s and the photographer’s brushes with death that nearly prevented their famous spontaneous Times Square meeting in the first place. The sailor, part of Bull Halsey’s famous task force, survived the deadly typhoon that took the lives of hundreds of other sailors. The nurse, an Austrian Jew who lost her mother and father in the Holocaust, barely managed to escape to the United States. Eisenstaedt, a World War I German soldier, was nearly killed at Flanders.
From one of the world's most respected sailors-the knowledge and secrets every sailor needs Peter Isler, two-time America's Cup winner, has sailed in and won hundreds of races over the last forty years. In that time, he has acquired a vast array of knowledge about sailing techniques and tactics, not to mention a boatload or two of entertaining stories along the way. In this book, he brings them all together into a single guide to help you make the most of your time on the water, whether you're going for a leisurely sail with friends or competing to win. Filled with tips and secrets every sailor craves, from the international competitor to the weekend dinghy sailor Includes wisdom and advice gleaned from Peter's time spent sailing with top international sailors, from America's Cup veterans Ted Turner, Dennis Conner and Russell Coutts to and three-time Olympic gold medalist Ben Ainslie Covers a range of important sailing topics, including understanding the inner game, leading a team, reading the wind, preparing your boat (and yourself), and much more Filled with information that will help you become a better sailor, Peter Isler's Little Blue Book of Sailing Secrets is an invaluable source of guidance you'll rely on every time you set sail.
Pirates of the Golden Age had to deal with scurvy, fight ferocious battles, and eat everything from monkeys to snakes to sea turtles, but you won't learn that in your history books! Discover the truth about Anne Bonny, the Irish woman who was a true Pirate of the Caribbean, and the secrets of Blackbeard and the daring pirate Cheng I Sao. Then learn how to talk like a pirate and make a buried treasure map for your friends. It's all part of the true stories from the Top Secret Files: Pirates and Buried Treasure. Take a look if you dare, but be careful! Some secrets are meant to stay hidden . . . Ages 9-12
