Modern Marine Weather (Third Edition)

Modern Marine Weather (Third Edition)

Modern Marine Weather (Third Edition) by David Burch Starpath Books The problem with teaching marine weather is the same problem as celestial navigation: How do you demonstrate a three-dimensional concept so that the recipient can visualize it? A book on marine weather represents a daunting subject, but once again David Burch has delivered a book that can be managed by expert and novice alike. The chapter “Strong Wind Systems” exemplifies Burch’s pragmatic yet encyclopedic approach to difficult subjects. For the sailor who wants to take a few rules of thumb for execution on the water, Burch offers a set of…
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Halfway Rock Light Station

Halfway Rock Light Station

Halfway Rock Light Station: A Granite Ledge 9.5 nm East of Portland, Maine  by Ford S. Reiche When writing about lighthouses, it’s almost impossible to avoid lapsing into nostalgia or busting out in Faulkner quotes about the past not being dead or Masefield’s lonely sea and the sky. So it was with a measure of dread that I opened Halfway Rock Light Station. What Ford S. Reiche has done, however, is a singular achievement — first by purchasing one of Maine’s most secluded and rugged island lighthouses, restoring it to its original condition from 1871, and then researching and writing…
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Run the Storm

Run the Storm

Run the Storm by George Michelsen Foy Scribner 2018 George M. Foy’s collective biography of a ship and a storm, and of the crew who would die in that storm, is a tour de force of nautical expertise coupled with sensitive treatment of one of the worst maritime disasters in our history. The story that Foy, a former officer in British coasters, recounts with such brilliance provides what one historian has called, in a related context, an affirmation “of nature’s contempt for human contrivance.” In reading Run the Storm, anyone connected to the sea — deepwater yacht sailor or merchant…
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Shakedown Cruise: Lessons and Adventures from a Cruising Veteran as He Learns the Ropes

Shakedown Cruise: Lessons and Adventures from a Cruising Veteran as He Learns the Ropes

Shakedown Cruise: Lessons and Adventures from a Cruising Veteran as He Learns the Ropes by Nigel Calder Adlard Coles Publishing 208 pages I approached Nigel Calder’s latest book with the usual trepidation. Once again, the Grand Master of boats and systems had chosen a topic — in this case, his first real seagoing adventure — and put it into book form. It’s hard to get one’s mind around Calder’s world, so thorough is his process and so seemingly omniscient his point of view. It’s useful, certainly, but it’s also intimidating. He knows all things. This is an extraordinary book, however,…
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Rogue Waves: Anatomy of a Monster

Rogue Waves: Anatomy of a Monster

Rogue Waves: Anatomy of a Monster by Michel Olagnon Bloomsbury 2017 160 pages Unpredicted and thus far unpredictable waves of vast height and sudden destructive power have long animated the imagination and concern of deepwater sailors. They kill or injure crews; they sink ships and yachts. As long ago as 1967, the noted yachtsman and maritime author Adlard Coles wrote what was then the definitive bluewater cautionary guide for intrepid voyagers. The book was called Heavy Weather Sailing. In it, Coles devoted a chapter to the most feared of oceanic phenomena. The term he coined for them was “freak” waves.…
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Sun, Wind, & Water: The Essential Guide to the Energy Efficient Cruising Boat

Sun, Wind, & Water: The Essential Guide to the Energy Efficient Cruising Boat

Sun, Wind, & Water: The Essential Guide to the Energy Efficient Cruising Boat by Bill Morris Seaworthy Publications 228 pages In all my miles as a cruising sailor, I’ve always been impressed by how well other cruisers could conserve things — money in particular. While my interest in dockside exchanges on savings generally perked up when liquor and wine were discussed, most other conservation-related topics got tedious fast. Discussions about energy conservation, however, were — and still are — different. Increasing one’s energy independence is exciting; it is the combination of self-sufficiency, project management, being able to use new gadgetry…
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Hawaii by Sextant

Hawaii by Sextant

Hawaii by Sextant: An In-depth Exercise in Celestial Navigation Using Real Sextant Sights and Logbook Entries By David Burch & Stephen Miller Starpath Publications, Seattle, Wash. 2014 Hawaii by Sextant is an exercise in ocean navigation by celestial navigation alone. It assumes that the reader has learned the basics of celestial navigation and is endeavoring to hone their skills using real voyage data including logbook entries, daily sight data, computed solutions, plotted work form solutions, and a comprehensive analysis of each problem. The book is complete with altitude correction tables, Polaris tables, interpolation tables for sun and moon rise, arc…
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Hawaiki Rising

Hawaiki Rising

Hawaiki Rising By Sam Low Island Heritage Publishing, 2013 Hardcover, 343 pages It has been nearly 38 years since the Polynesian voyaging canoe Hokule’a first set sail from Hawaii without instruments or charts, using only the stars, wind, and waves for guidance. Hokule’a’s historic 35-day, 2,400-nm voyage to Tahiti became testimony to the ancient navigators’ skill and showed it was possible to sail upwind from the east, eventually settling in Polynesia. In his new book Hawaiki Rising, author, filmmaker and photographer Sam Low tells Hokule’a’s story and chronicles the voyaging canoe’s history as an icon of Hawaiian pride and culture.…
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Rough Passage to London: A Sea Captain’s Tale

Rough Passage to London: A Sea Captain’s Tale

Rough Passage to London: A Sea Captain’s Tale By Robin Lloyd Sheridan House, 2013 Hardcover, 368 pages Author Robin Lloyd had no intention of writing a historical novel when he began researching his seafaring ancestor Capt. Elisha Ely Morgan. He had inherited a letter from Charles Dickens to the captain as well as several others from Dickens to the captain’s son and wanted to know more — more about Morgan, his connections, and more about this iconic age of Atlantic commerce. His new novel, Rough Passage to London, is the fruit of his labor and follows the young Morgan as…
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The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World

The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World

The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World By Lincoln Paine Alfred A. Knopf, New York 2013 784 pages I first met Lincoln Paine when he was researching his book Down East: A Maritime History of Maine (2000). He sought me out hoping to gain some insight into Maine’s fisheries. I quickly recognized him as an avid researcher and historian. In The Sea And Civilization: A Maritime History of the World, Paine has taken on the monumental task of telling human history through the lens of maritime travel, revealing how all people and their cultures are in some…
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