While most books written by sailing writers (or writing sailors) tend toward either the wonky or the evocative, Charlie Doane's new work, The Sea Is Not Full, is something of a compilation, a bit of "all of the above." Full has elements from memoir to treatise, to primer on navigation and heavy weather, to sea story, to a set of biographical sketches of fellow ocean sailors. Doane is by turns inspiring, funny, knowledgeable and philosophical.
This is a wonderfully readable, highly instructive and thoughtful book. It's written in Doane's signature style of clarity and passion tinged with a bit hard-won sailorly skepticism. Doane, who has written for a variety of magazines (including Ocean Navigator) on a range of topics has put together a book that any sailor will enjoy reading and will come away from with new knowledge, but without having to suffer through dry, instructional prose. The Sea Is Not Full should definitely be on your reading list. The book is available through SeaPoint Books.
