The perfect armchair sailing guide, with enough detail to set a person dreaming . . . On July 21, 2004, Silver Donald Cameron and his wife, Marjorie Simmins, set sail from D’Escousse, in Cape Breton Island, toward the white sand beaches and palm trees of the nearest tropical islands. They were sailing an old Norwegian-built ketch named Magnus. Accompanying them was their dog, Leo the Wonder Whippet. Leo was thirteen. The skipper was an old-age pensioner. His youthful mate was new to the cruising life. Yet 236 days later, with more than 3,000 nautical miles behind them, this distinctly trepid crew rowed ashore in Little Harbour, in the Bahamas, heading for Pete’s Pub, a palm-thatched tiki bar on the beach. It had been quite a trip. All three had lost fat and gained muscle. They were not in debt. Friends had remarked that the skipper and mate looked ten years younger, and the ancient Leo was capering about like a puppy. Mind you, there had been bad moments, as in Jonesport, Maine, when the skipper smashed the boat into a wharf and punched a hole in the bow, or the black night off the deadly coast of New Jersey, in a screeching gale with the boat rolling her side decks under. But there had been plenty of thrills, too: fireworks over the Tall Ships in Halifax Harbour; careening down the East River at ten knots with Manhattan whizzing past to starboard; feasting on hush puppies and grits with chicken gravy in Georgia; enjoying the ancient streets of St. Augustine, and the dazzling opulence of Fort Lauderdale. And then, after crossing the Gulf Stream, the Bahamas, complete with coral reefs crowded with tropical fish, yellow and scarlet and black. A long way from the snow and ice back home. From the Hardcover edition.

After tough assignments as a Canadian diplomat abroad, Nicholas Coghlan and his wife Jenny unwind by sailing Bosun Bird, a 27foot sailboat, from Cape Town, South Africa, across the South Atlantic and into the stormy winter waters around Tierra del Fuego, South America. Coghlan recounts earlier adventures in Patagonia when, taking time off from his job as a schoolteacher in Buenos Aires in the late 1970s, he and Jenny explored the region of southern Argentina and Chile over three successive summers. This time, as they negotiate the labyrinth of channels and inlets around snow-covered Fireland, he reflects on voyages of past explorers: Magellan, Cook, Darwin, and others. Sailing enthusiasts and readers of true adventures will want to add Coghlan's world-wise narrative to their libraries.

You long to escape the daily grind, buy a boat and sail away. This book will inspire your dreams and show you how to turn them into a reality – be it an extended cruise or years away. Written by a yachting journalist who has sailed away for 8 years, together with the contributions of 100 other blue-water cruisers, there are tales a plenty of what it is like to do it from around the world – west, east, north and south. There is also practical advice on everything from choosing a boat to crossing oceans. You'll be guided through each step of the preparation before casting off on your adventure of a lifetime. There's information on everything the would-be blue-water sailor needs to consider, including safety, communications, children, ocean passages and budgeting. Learn about routes and destinations around Europe, the Caribbean, the Pacific and beyond to help you cruise the Mediterranean or Baltic, cross the Atlantic or circumnavigate the world. Colour photographs and charts will inspire and inform in this essential guide for the 21st century blue-water sailor. Fully updated for 2019 with new sections on visiting the Baltic and high and low latitudes. Contributors include John Ridgway, Jeanne Socrates, Tom Cunliffe, Ellen Massey Leonard, Behan Gifford, Nigel Wollen, Andrew Wilkes, Jane Russell and Jeremy Wyatt.

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