Ocean Boats

After sailing 300,000 miles and weathering dozens of storms in all the world's oceans, John Kretschmer has plenty of stories and advice to share. John's offshore training passages sell out a year in advance, and his entertaining presentations are popular at boat shows and yacht clubs all over the English-speaking world. John's talent for storytelling enchants his audience as it soaks up the lessons he learned during his often challenging voyages. Now you can take a seat next to John - at a lesser cost - and get the knowledge you need to fulfill your own dream of blue-water adventure.

The iconic Sydney to Hobart Race, a 723-mile deepwater challenge - often called the “Everest” of offshore ocean racing - is considered one of the toughest in the world. Unpredictable weather and seas make each race demanding, but in 1998, an unexpected “weather bomb” hit the fleet, creating 80-foot waves and 100-mile-per-hour winds. Many bigger, better-equipped boats tried to maneuver around the storm, but the crew of the AFR Midnight Rambler chose to head directly into its path.

Conor and Grace are twins, recently orphaned after their widowed father's death. They decide to set sail for new pastures in their father's last possession, his sailboat. But a vicious storm capsizes their boat, and the twins are separated. Two mysterious ships sail to their rescue, each picking up one twin before disappearing into the mist. Conor wakes to find himself on a pirate ship; Grace finds herself locked in a darkened room, as the vampirates wait for night to fall and their feasting to begin.

Navigating through one storm builds courage for the next. Spencer and his faithful labrador retriever, Finn, continue their quest to reach his girlfriend, Kate, in Stuart, Florida, before she becomes another casualty of the chaos caused by the EMPs that have crippled the eastern seaboard and possibly the country. Leaving Marathon, Florida, in lawless turmoil behind them, Spencer, and his newly minted crew, consisting of Rob, Natalie, and their daughter Maya, soon realize the open ocean is no safe haven. With the potential for danger lurking behind every wave and conditions rivaling those ...

Sometimes the only way out of the storm is directly through it. Spencer and his loyal dog, Finn, along with their crew—Rob, Natalie, and young daughter, Maya having barely survived the treacherous seas, discover that the dangers they left behind on the open ocean are nothing compared to what lies ahead. As they reach their destination in Stuart, Florida they find a ravaged coastline, and the remnants of civilization descended into anarchy. With the safety of Spencer's girlfriend, Kate, still uncertain, his resolve and training are tested more than ever. The crew must navigate through a ...

Across Islands and Oceans is the memoir of 25 year-old James Baldwin and his epic two-year, solo circumnavigation in Atom, his trusty but aging 28-foot sailboat.

Orphaned at five, nothing held Whidden back from embarking on sea life seven years later. Serving as an apprentice, he quickly proved his worth and earned himself a mate's position by his early 20s. Graduating to third, second, and first office, he ended his career in command of, and having part-ownership of, his own vessel. Ocean Life in the Old Sailing Ship Days records a series of real events from his childhood impressions of rough and ready seamen to his thrilling and brutal experiences of war.

John Kretschmer is sailing’s practical philosopher - as much a doer as a thinker. And that is the overarching theme of this chronicle of a sailing life. Often amusing, sometimes poignant, occasionally terrifying but always inspiring, his deeply personal account is a welcome reminder of the good life waiting at sea. With hundreds of thousands of nautical miles under his keel, John’s adventures have taken him several times around the world.

Islands, Oceans and Dreams is a true story of a man who, at the age of 33, began dreaming of voyaging with his wife to the South Pacific. He wasn't an adventurer or daring by nature, but he bought a boat and began learning the ways of the sea. Twenty years later, racked with the pain of divorce and still aching to live out his dream, he set off alone for Tahiti. After reaching French Polynesia, he continued cruising for seven years and wound up solo sailing around the world.

If you're an angler looking to hook one of the most sought-after game fish on the East Coast, you need to check out Striped Bass Fishing – the ultimate guide to landing a striped bass! In this comprehensive eBook, you'll learn everything you need to know to catch this mighty and fascinating fish. From understanding their behaviors and characteristics in Chapter 1 to mastering the art of topwater fishing in Chapter 12, no stone is left unturned. We take the subject of gear and tackle seriously in Chapter 2. Choosing the right equipment can make all the difference in your catch rate. We'll ...

Two Soviet engineers. One abandoned sailboat. A promise made in vodka and brotherhood—to bring her home, no matter the cost. In the early 1990s, Alexei and Nikolai hand-built a sleek racing yacht—Gonta—crafted with grit, sweat, and dreams of freedom on the open sea. But after it’s shipped to Australia under orders from a powerful Soviet director, Gonta is left behind and forgotten. Years later, lost in post-Soviet monotony and cheap vodka, the friends make a pact to retrieve her—an oath that will test the limits of courage, friendship, and survival. What begins as a drunken dream ...

Holden Beach to Shallotte to Southport to Ocean Isle Beach Put-in-Bay investigative reporter Emerson Moore visits Shallotte, North Carolina to relax with an old friend. Little did Moore know that he would be pulled into the intrigue surrounding a suspicious boat offshore the Flounder Pier restaurant in nearby idyllic Holden Beach. Mixed in the plot are the strange nightly explorations by a retired shrimp trawler captain on the Shallotte River near the Holden Seafood Company plus his longstanding feud with another trawler captain. Toss in a couple unsolved murders, a touch of romance, a ...

Sailing by yourself, out of sight of land, can be invigorating and terrifying, compelling and tedious—and sometimes all of the above in one morning. But it is also a wide expanse of time in which to think. Sailing Alone tells the story of some of the remarkable people who, over the last four centuries, have spent weeks and months, moving slowly over the world's largest laboratory: a capricious and startling place in which to observe oneself, the weather, the stars, and countless sea creatures, from the tiniest to the most massive and threatening.

**Awards:** New Mexico-Arizona Book Award Finalist, 2024; Royal Dragonfly First Place in Letters, Diaries, and Journals, 2024; Global Book Awards Silver Medalist in Biography and Memoir, 2024; Wishing Shelf Red Ribbon, 2025; Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in Memoir, 2025. Do you want to get away from it all? Meet Kent. Overwhelmed by the indifference of his South Dakota undergraduate students and fed up with American politics of the 1980s, he yearns for a life of adventure. Then, he discovers sailboats. While retirement seems financially out of reach, living on a sailboat opens ...

This riveting collection of adventure writing includes the work of The Perfect Storm author, Sebastian Junger. Listen as men and women battle the elements, and often each other, to stay alive, confronting sharks, savage storms, rogue waves, mountainous icebergs, starvation, and their own fear and suffering.

A true story of making a dream come true. An inspiring tale of risk, sacrifice, determination and achievement in an epic journey around the world. An extraordinary effort to rescue and restore a legendary yacht. A first hand account of a great sea adventure. A west to east circumnavigation against the odds through the traitorous Sothern ocean, around three great capes (cape of Good Hope, Leeuwin and Cape Horn) on a tiny 10-meter, 40-year old boat. Five ocean crossings and 38.000+ nautical miles sailed in two and a half years.

All alone for 193 days in his purpose-built yacht, New Zealand yachtsman Graeme Kendall crossed 28,000 miles of ocean, facing some of the Earth's most challenging seas. An enthralling adventure, To The Ice and Beyond will inspire you to live your dreams and to never give up. During his extraordinary solo circumnavigation, Kendall became the first person to sail the Northwest Passage solo nonstop. Sailing east to west, he knocked off the "Everest of sailing" in just 12 days - the fastest recorded. This is a story of determination, meticulous planning, and rugged courage.

Waypoint A Navy pilot sailing away his days on an old, wooden boat... a series of mysterious women, a high seas collision, and... murder. When Marcus Beacon returns to England from sailing around the world, all is not as it should be. A drugs lord with a taste for danger, an encounter with a beautiful woman, and espionage at the highest level, all lead Marcus back into a world he thought he had left behind. But Marcus is back from his self-imposed exile, and he must face the demons of his old life head on.

Includes: The Novella, Beneath Cold Seas: the story of a Maine captain who takes a job delivering a tug from Newfoundland to New York as the means to get away and forget the death of a shipmate and close friend. Deception, murder and high adventure in the Gulf of Maine. The Short Story, Ghost of the Old Maine Codger: A rough night at sea and a bad choice in late night snacks conjure up a two-hundred-year-old ghost. The Short Story, Mother Lode: Raw nerves and a gold-rush mentality pit three fishermen against each other on an urchin boat off the coast of Maine. The Short Story, The Dead ...

*20,000 words John expected to fight a war. But he never expected to find a mate. John, an Alpha wolf shifter, is on a mission to rescue Kylen from a vicious murderous group of demons. But John didn’t expect that Kylen would be an omega. John also didn't expect to fall in love. Now they're on the run together, to find a hidden island that might be more myth than reality. Can they escape their enemy, before Kylen's first heat strikes?