Showing titles in Sailing & Boating

This is what it is like to sail an ocean alone. Not the world-girdling marathon of the Southern Ocean racers or the “cruise in company” as part of a trade-wind rally, but what it is really like to set off for 3,496 miles from the British Virgin Islands to Falmouth in the UK, totally alone. That means no contact with the shore, no high-frequency radio or satphone. No weather forecasts, no texts from loved ones. No news…Just complete and uninterrupted isolation for 44 days. In other words, this is singlehanded ocean sailing at its purest: One man in a world shrunk to its bare essentials.

RYA Yacht Sailing Techniques describes the basic skills that a skipper and crew require to enjoy their cruising in good conditions. It covers the layout and equipment on a small to medium-sized yacht, the essential safety information that all need to know before getting under way, basic maintenance, manoeuvring in a marina, handling under sail, anchoring and mooring, and, of course, man overboard rescue strategy.

Erik Weihenmayer is the first and only blind person to summit Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Descending carefully, he and his team picked their way across deep crevasses and through the deadly Khumbu Icefall; when the mountain was finally behind him, Erik knew he was going to live. His expedition leader slapped him on the back and said something that would affect the course of Erik’s life: “Don’t make Everest the greatest thing you ever do.” No Barriers is Erik’s response to that challenge.

Most people at some point long to escape - from the weather, the commute, the routine. Sailing off in a 40-foot boat called Voyager comes at a price, however. Indeed, for David and Sandra Clayton it meant selling their house and possessions with a lifetime's collection of memories and emotions attached to them. But the result proved life-enhancing. With her eye for detail and vivid descriptions, Sandra carries the listener with her through some of the Mediterranean's loveliest islands.

In July 1973, Bob Tininenko, his wife Linda, and his brother in-law Jim Fisher set sail from Tacoma, Washington, on a 31-foot trimaran, down the West Coast to Costa Rica. The journey was expected to take a matter of weeks, but 10 days into the cruise, the party encountered a freak storm off the coast of Northern California. When gale-force winds and 50-foot waves capsized their boat, the voyage became a nightmare. For 72 days, the trio was lost at sea. Challenged by nature and compromised by a bitter rivalry, their courage and will to live was put to the ultimate test.

Home from Distant Seas completes the trilogy of books by James Baldwin recounting his 25 years of live-aboard cruising adventures. The author creates a tribute to the sea and to those who venture upon her in small voyaging sailboats as he describes his personal journey of survival and discovery at sea as well as the sailors and local people he met along the way. Continuing here with the memoir of his second adventurous circumnavigation begun in his earlier books Bound for Distant Seas and The Next Distant Sea.

Narrow Margins is the true story of one family's journey from the financial crash of the Rover car company to an alternative and better lifestyle. Faced with the loss of everything - the house, the cars, and more importantly, their rather lazy and indolent lifestyle - Marie Browne and her family took on the challenge of a whole new way of life. Strapped for cash, the family buy a decrepit 70ft barge called Happy Go Lucky which had been run as a floating hotel.

At the age of 25, during the summer of 2012, Dan found his ideal home, the fact that it was nearly 100 miles of canal away from his workplace, friends, and family gave him a rough and ready introduction to what it meant to own a boat as his first task was to travel the slow way home... in his home.

Including stories from paradise and hard-won lessons in seamanship, Taleisin's Tales reflects back to the first miles Lin and Larry Pardey gained together on the second boat they built lovingly with teak carvel planking over sawn black locust frames. The book includes details from outfitting, provisioning, and final detailing during the early months Lin and Larry spent getting to know their new bluewater cruiser, as well as moments of melancholy as they let go of attachments to their first trusty boat.

The Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) are revised and published every four years by World Sailing, the international authority for the sport. This handy guide audiobook is a simplified view of the basic racing rules and has been updated to reflect the Racing Rules of Sailing 2025-2028.

The RYA National Sailing Scheme's higher-level modules for small-boat sailing are covered comprehensively in this audiobook. As well as the information for Seamanship Skills, Day Sailing, Sailing with Spinnakers, Performance Sailing, and Start Racing, there is extra detail on dealing with capsizes, trapezing, and foiling.

By the same author as the best-selling Total Loss, this is a new collection of terrifying and compelling accounts of yachts lost at sea. The seven deadly causes of loss continue to take their toll, and Paul Gelder has compiled firsthand accounts of shipwreck and sinking caused by collision, gear failure, stress of weather, faulty navigation, fire, crew failure, and exhaustion. The moving, emotionally charged descriptions of shipwrecked sailors abandoning their yachts at sea will have you on the edge of your seat.

Over the course of twenty years of delivering sailboats to far-flung quaysides, John Kretschmer has had innumerable adventures, both humorous and terrifying. In Flirting with Mermaids, he recounts the most memorable of them. He crosses the Western Caribbean with a crew of eccentric Swedes researching ancient Mayan mariners, lands in Aden at the outbreak of civil war, and endures a North Atlantic crossing during which he discovers the existence of Force 13 winds.

Here, for the first time, is a complete and chronological account: everything from levitating the dog and navigating by smell to meeting his wife Tamsin through the Lonely Hearts column of Time Out and attempting to run away to sea and raise a family on a 27 foot boat.

City girl Torre DeRoche isn’t looking for love, but a chance encounter in a San Francisco bar sparks an instant connection with a soulful Argentinean man who unexpectedly sweeps her off her feet. The problem? He’s just about to cast the dock lines and voyage around the world on his small sailboat, and Torre is terrified of deep water. However, lovesick Torre determines that to keep the man of her dreams, she must embark on the voyage of her nightmares, so she waves good-bye to dry land and braces for a life-changing journey that’s as exhilarating as it is terrifying.

This audiobook covers comprehensively all the information that an RYA Instructor needs to know, both on and off the water. As well as detailing the instructing and coaching qualifications that are available, and explaining how sailors learn, this audiobook details how to teach and coach the theoretical aspects and practical sessions of the RYA National Sailing Scheme.

In November 2015 Sarah Outen completed her five-year, 25,000 mile journey looping the planet by cycling across Europe, Asia and North America and canoeing and kayaking across the North Pacific and most of the North Atlantic.

The author of Bad Land realizes a lifelong dream as he navigates the waters of the Mississippi River in a spartan sixteen-foot motorboat, producing yet another masterpiece of contemporary American travel writing.

The tale of an ordinary boy whose career takes him on a most extraordinary journey, this audiobook begins with Brendan messing about in boats in a sleepy coastal Australian town, and ends with him becoming one of the most successful and respected superyacht captains in the World—the consummate 'Billionaire's Captain'. Spanning two decades and circling the globe, his story intimately draws listeners into the real world of superyachts, their crew and their owners. It is Brendan's love letter to an industry he respects and holds so dear to his heart.

What happens when a man of today's overconnected world sets off alone across the Pacific at the age of 71? Christian Williams, a veteran sailor and writer, planned a 6,000-mile voyage as a test of his own seamanship and endurance, and to fulfill a lifelong goal. But he found his focus quickly turning from the surrounding sea to all of us. Is anyone the same person when no one else is there? Do we dare to find out?