Was researching to find a book tonight that I hadnt read for a while - "The Brendan Voyage" by Tim Severin. My father-in-law is a keen sunday markets peruser of cheap books and got me this a while back. I ended up giving it to a friends brother who was working on Christmas Island and was a keen cruising sailor. Great read of some adventurous sailing.

Inspired me to start a thread for books that people enjoyed and wouldn't mind recommending. All types fiction and non.

To start off some classics.

The Seawolf, Jack London
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemmingway
The Brendan Voyage, Tim Severin

The old man and the sea while its been around a while i only just picked it up recently and couldn't put it down.

"Endurance' about Ernest Shackleton's jaunt in the southern regions. It really bring home the old saying "Never give up" Should be made compulsory reading for school kids. Nothing I have ever done would come close to what those guys put up with.

"Rescue in the Pacific" is not a bad read either.

Add "Two years before the mast", Dana, and Villiers "The set of the sails".

Agree with many of the above and to add a few more that come to mind - South Sea Vagabonds is a good read about a fella in New Zealand who loses his job during the depression, builds a boat from driftwood in his backyard, and sails off around the pacific. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a classic but not sure if it counts as a sea voyage. Maybe Robinson Crusoe for a bit of perspective. And a great non fiction read is Mimi and TouTou Go Forth by Giles Foden, about a failed destroyer captain in WW1 who gets the crazy assignment of lugging two boats overland across Africa and up the Congo to fight the Germans on Lake Tanganyika - really is stranger than fiction. And again not sure if meets the sea voyage requirement but when I was growing up I loved the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome, great for younger readers but still enjoy them now.

GKandCC said..
'The Happy Isles of Oceania' by Paul Theroux chronicles his journey, often by fold-up kayak, outrigger canoe and various yachts and aeroplanes around the islands of the Pacific. My lasting impression however was the lamentable casting aside of traditional subsistence practices in many of the small island nations such as canoe-based fishing in favour of canned Spam or similar fatty fare, care of misplaced foreign aid. Enough details of lost traditions, though, for it to be considered a history book. +1 for Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness', a great work of English Fiction by a Polish mariner for whom English was a second language! So Britain, don't be too quick to send those innumerable Polish plumbers back home post-Brexit.

Conrad's description of the voyage of the crippled ship in the first part of Lord Jim is a true classic.

Fairly topical right now is the vendee race ! A great read is a book about the first race around the world , in 1967 I think it was ....... I loaned the book to someone and didn't get it back , so Carnt be sure on the title but .......... Something like " the golden globe race around the world " ...... Someone with a better memory or a copy on the shelf may be able to confirm the title or not ?

Hi everyone,

My sister gave me a book for Christmas called "To The Ice and Beyond: Sailing Solo Across 32 Oceans and Seaways" by Graeme Kendall. I am up to Chapter 4 and so far it has me very interested. It's about a Kiwi who sailed a boat called a Tourer (12.5 metre), designed by Greg Elliott. He departed Auckland, then sailed over the top of Australia, then down underneath Africa, all the way up the Atlantic, then he sailed through the Inside Passage (east to west in 12 days), then he sailed down between Russia and Alaska , continuing all the way down the Pacific Ocean and through the pacific islands, arriving back in Auckland. According to the back of the book, it took him 193 days all up.

Also on my shelf, are the following good reads:
Jesse Martin's Lionheart"
Jessica Watson's "True Spirit"
"Two in a TopHat" by Jan Mitchell.

PS: I have just passed "Learn to Sail 1" at my local club, sailing in a Laser and sometimes in an Envy. So, I am reading quite a few Laser sailing books. I am looking forward to be able to do "Learn to Sail 2" this year.

Snapperfish.

PhoenixStar said..
"Five Black Ships" by Napoleon Baccino Ponce de Leon, an account of Magellan's ill fated voyage and "A Voyage for Madmen", Peter Nichols, an account of the first round the world race and the hopelessly optimistic men who participated.

It's always puzzled me why Magellan is considered to be the first person to circumnavigate the world.he arrived back DEAD AND PICKLED IN A BARREL !, having died in the Phillipines( from memory), better to credit all the survivors. How many other mis-attributions are there out there?.who, for instance, remembers the name of the only survivor of the Burke and Wills expedition?

stupid computer programme did not recognise the "acento" above letters, stupid yankee spelling

Cristobel Colon ....

Two of my favorites are

"Twenty feet of adventure in rebel" By Eve Barber which is about a couple who had home buit 20' bilge keeler who when dislodged from their farm in Rhodesia sailed to mooloolaba from saldanha in South Africa via the Panama canal starting in 1978.The author settled in Apollo Bay Vic and i was lucky to pick up a signed copy locally ...great read

"My sweet little epsilon" By Barry Craft who solo sailed his 23' North Wind trailer sailer from the Gold coast to fremantle in 2001...inspirational

I expect both are fairly difficult to come by.

Mike Peyton has passed away. I have enjoyed his cartoons in sailing magazines forever! His books of cartoons are worthwhile checking out.

afloat.ie/resources/news-update/item/34812-mike-peyton-1921-2017

The names of his yachts and the names of the yachts in his cartoons are always clever.

Just reading the Old Man and the Sea by Anthony Smith. An 84 year old adventurer finds 3 other lunatics to build a raft and sail across the Atlantic. Light and fun. You're never too old for an adventure!

Cheers

Bristol