Sailing Travel

A retired, Canadian firefighter with a dream of adventure sails his new boat from The Virgin Islands to Grenada, and then across the Caribbean Sea to the USA. Picking up his 2 dogs he continues up and down the east coast and across the Bahamas, gaining experience as a dream of circumnavigating the planet begins to form. A true story beginning in 2012, this first half concludes with the Bénéteau 423 being outfitted in North Carolina in 2015, ready to depart for Panama. Dramatic, often moving, or incredibly funny, it is a tale of confronting the unknown, told with heart.

Ever thought of ditching your conventional life to buy a sailboat and go traveling the world as a modern-day sea nomad? Half Fast is the true story of a married couple in their thirties who do just that—a move some of their family and friends consider to be a 'half-assed scheme' at best. With little money and even even less nautical experience they leave their small-town home in Arkansas to embark on an adventure they hope will last for a year or two but which evolves into a quarter-century voyage of discovery spanning half the world. Come along with Randy and Cheryl as they cruise their ...

How many times have you had that overpowering urge to leave it all behind and sail off to a tropical island? The desire of the ordinary landlubber to go to sea is as old as mankind itself. Here is the true story of how my wife and I became captured by the powerful allure of the sea. This is book one of a four book series. 'Quest and Crew' begins hours before a hurricane of unimaginable destructive force obliterates the south shore of Grenada. Luckily, Quest survives without a scratch. It’s a story about how life's many twists and turns, fortune and disaster, can change your path but make ...

★★★★★ "It's an extraordinary book and an instant classic." ★★★★★ "One of the finest pieces of writing today... a true masterpiece." ★★★★★ "In his debut travel book Tom Dymond has triumphed. You don’t have to be hooked on sailing to revel in the tales of two young men’s round the world voyage of self discovery." ★★★★★ "I feel as if I have just circumnavigated the world with Tom and James. A great read! Some passages were so funny I had to put the book down to recover." ★★★★★ "Tom writes with such deftness that every chapter takes you to ...

This second edition, new and improved, came out in 2019. (Also, this ebook is reflowable whereas the one for the 1st edition was not.) For anyone who dreams of sailing away, it remains a classic memoir of a 15,000-mile solo expedition with a tiny, hand-made boat. Bent on discovery, Ladd ranges from Montana to the pirate-infested coast of Panama and Colombia, across the Andes, down a 600-mile river by night to avoid guerrillas, and through the Caribbean. Robbed, capsized, arrested and befriended, he sails and rows through a tumult of uncharted adventures. The cast of characters: Dieter, mad ...

Challenged by an expert who said it couldn’t be done, Joshua Slocum, a fearless New England sea captain, set out in April 1895 to prove that a man could sail alone around the world. A little over three years and forty-six thousand miles later, the proof was complete. This is Slocum’s own account of his remarkable adventures during the historic voyage of the Spray.

A hilarious travel memoir about a man who moved with his wife, three kids, and two pets onto a forty-six-foot sailboat for a year. He expected it to be a yearlong version of Margaritaville, but what he got was shipwrecks, bad directions, hygiene calamities, and pirate attacks (sort of). Perfect...

‘Quest in the Caribbean’ is the final book in the Quest Series. Wendy and I have learned to become sailors. We thank our lucky stars every day that the sea has been merciful to us. The sea is our home, but it can also be a strict master and unforgiving teacher. We learn our lessons one day and one problem at a time. But more importantly, Wendy and I learn a great deal about each other and what it takes to be good companions on a tiny boat. Compatibility on a cruising boat is the irreplaceable ingredient that keeps the cruise alive. The first chapter of ‘Quest in the Caribbean’ ...

Alone aboard "Acrohc", the tiny yacht he designed and built, Serge Testa sailed around the world and into the Guinness Book of Records. Exotic landfalls, cyclones, encounters with whales and a nearly fatal fire at sea make this a gripping story. Told with understatement and humor, this account of a unique voyage of discovery and endurance appeals to the adventurer in all of us.

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.

What would a sailing challenge be without green water over the bow and a hard beat to windward? ‘Quest on the Thorny Path’ is the second book of the Quest series. You are now on the feared and fabled Thorny Path. Leave the laid back cruiser hangout of Georgetown, Bahamas behind and hit the big ocean waves for the first time. From Georgetown we take the path less traveled through the deserted and desolate out islands of the southern Bahamas. After a short stay in the Turks and Caicos, our course takes us to the north coast of Hispaniola. Christopher Columbus appropriately named this ...

In 1968, nine sailors set off on the most daring race ever held: to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe nonstop. It was a feat that had never been accomplished and one that would forever change the face of sailing. Ten months later, only one of the nine men would cross the finish line and earn fame, wealth, and glory. For the others, the reward was madness, failure, and death. In this extraordinary book, Peter Nichols chronicles a contest of the individual against the sea, waged at a time before cell phones and electronic positioning systems.

Adrian Martin and his family set out to sail the Great Loop, one of America's best kept boating secrets. But aside from the journey and the scenery, this book is about what it is like to live on a boat twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in all weather and in all conditions. More than anything, Adrian wants to relate with honesty and humor what this lifestyle is like for all the many people who have dreamed about living aboard and experiencing the cruising life. And to add to the authenticity, Adrian gets seasick riding in the back seat of an automobile, or at the carnival, or when ...

We are anchored in a windswept bay in the Dominican Republic on our way to Puerto Rico. There is no turning back now. The gear is stowed, hatches battened and the sails reefed. We are about to venture into the dreaded Mona Passage between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Once we are in PR, we will have a leisurely sail along the beautiful south coast. But we have to survive the Mona Passage first. Will she be kind to us? It is my pleasure to have you come along for the third book in the Quest series. Included in our itinerary is Vieques, St. Croix, St. John and a little fling with Virgin Gorda. ...

After nearly drowning in Greece, Christine Stovell was determined never to get on a boat again. The sailing kind? Definitely not. Yet when she married a keen sailor and became joint owner of a vintage wooden yacht, she somehow managed to sail halfway round Britain, despite never finding her sea legs. Insightful, funny and raw, Christine’s story captures the joy, terror and wonder of a novice, seasick sailor out on the waves in a small wooden boat. Her adventures have taken her through sleepy backwaters and high seas, from Essex to west Wales and across to France. Along the way, she’s ...

Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834 and published in 1840. While at Harvard College, Dana had an attack of the measles that affected his vision. Thinking it might help his sight, Dana, rather than going on a Grand Tour as most of his fellow classmates traditionally did (and unable to afford it anyway), and being something of a nonconformist, left Harvard to enlist as a common sailor.

“As I sailed out of the Steinhatchee River, out onto the Gulf of Mexico, my heart picked up a beat,” writes John Almberg. "It suddenly struck me that this was the first time I’d ever sailed beyond the narrow, protected waters of Long Island Sound. "Am I really going to do this?” Equipped with cheerful optimism, invention, and persistence, this ordinary middle-aged man takes you on a sailing adventure from Florida's Nature Coast to Long Island Sound—2000 miles through open ocean, steamy Everglades, trackless marshes on the Intracoastal Waterway, more bridges and locks than you can ...

Joshua Slocum was believed to be the first man to sail single-handed around the world. After a distinguished career, where he worked his way up from cabin boy to captain, Joshua Slocum wrecked his ship off the coast of Brazil. Turning this catastrophe to his advantage, he built a sailing canoe from the wreckage and sailed back to New York. Moreover, he wrote Voyage of the Liberdad, a chronicle of his trip, and earned some literary success.

Tania Aebi was an unambitious 18-year-old, a bicycle messenger in New York City by day, a Lower East Side barfly at night. In short, she was going nowhere - until her father offered her a challenge: Tania could choose either a college education or a 26-foot sloop. The only catch was that if she chose the sailboat, she'd have to sail around the world - alone. She chose the boat, and for the next two and a half years and 27,000 miles, it was her home.

Looking for a perfect summer read? Try this British detective cosy mystery set in the sunshine, for the ultimate armchair destination adventure... A yacht, a beautiful Aegean town, a grand hotel and the unexpected death of a TV star... After being shipwrecked on the Turkish Aegean coast, Connie McKinnon, author and sometime private investigator, is forced to stop in Ayvalik, the only place with the facilities to repair her yacht, Sunlight. She befriends the wealthy socialite Frances Tredegar-Jones who asks Connie to look into the recent death of her friend, Sylvie Bertillon. Sylvie, a ...