Books and DVDs

Andrés Reséndez, Mariner Books, $28 Conquering the Pacific is a rich historical narrative that tells the story of the last great discovery of the Age of Sail—the vuelta, or the return voyage from Asia to the Americas. Though many attempts had been made, all had ended in failure. ...read more

Sailor Song is the ultimate guide to the music of working sailors during the 18th and 19th centuries. The book includes lyrics and sheet music for 50 of the most beloved sea songs with fascinating historical background on the adjoining page. Chapter introductions provide ...read more

Reviewed by Amanda Balasubramanian As we were preparing for our first significant offshore passage in 2013, I read every book on ocean sailing I could find. However, while there were a number of helpful books full of technical information, I also longed for the personal stories ...read more

“What is the color of the ocean that rolls beneath Pacific trades? How does a wave curl and crash at 47 degrees south? Can an albatross remain awing in the worst of weathers?” Randall Reeves has always found images to be the most compelling part of the stories we tell about the ...read more

Sailing Into Oblivion by Jerome Rand $15.99, available through Amazon As refreshing and inspiring as Jerome Rand’s 2017-18 solo-circumnavigation may have been, his account of the voyage in the book Sailing Into Oblivion: The Solo Non-Stop Voyage of the Mighty Sparrow may be even ...read more

James Barber Harbour Publishing, $14.95 I’ll bet a filet mignon against a can of Dinty Moore that almost every cruising cook has read and discarded a goodly number of seagoing recipe books. Some are so simple as to be insulting. Others require too many exotic and perishable ...read more

From the casual sailor to the lover of linguistics, everyone is sure to find something to fascinate them in this entertaining little book. Three Sheets to the Wind unpacks the etymology of modern words and idioms derived from nautical terms. Part trivia, part reference and part ...read more

Author of a definitive series of pilot books and cruising guides for the Mediterranean, Rod Heikell and his wife, Lou, embarked on a circumnavigation during which they amassed not only a host of anecdotes but a bookload of recipes based around the produce of the landfalls they ...read more

Briton Duncan Wells is a Royal Yachting Association (RYA) instructor and runs a sailing school, which gives him the chops to produce this excellent book on close-quarters sailboat handling for the crewless. Packed with photographs, diagrams and step-by-step procedures for just ...read more

An accomplished sailor and writer, Kretschmer tells the poignant, yet relatable tale of a lifetime’s love of sailing in his new book Sailing to the Edge of Time. Beginning with his first fateful trip around Cape Horn in a 32ft sloop named Gigi, Kretschmer takes readers with him ...read more

Mary McKSchmidt’s new memoir tells the honest and impactful story of finding purpose through sailing and advocacy. As a young successful businesswoman, she was taught to sail by her soon-to-be-husband, Rubin. Not only that, but while she fell in love with the ...read more

CHECK THESE If you’re sailing with new crew this summer or your kids have suddenly and inexplicably started to look up from their phones and take an interest in the finer points of cruising, these Quick Reference Cards from Davis are a great way to further their boating ...read more

BMW Oracle Racing’s 2010 ascent to America’s Cup glory with Jimmy Spithill at the helm may be one of the best-known tales in the annals of modern sailing, but you haven’t heard it like this before. Spithill’s autobiography, Chasing the Cup, is a must-read for anyone following ...read more

Nathaniel Philbrick Amidst today’s tales of high-tech yacht design and the pros battling it out in seemingly impossible conditions, Second Wind is the gorgeously simple story of a man who loves two things: his boat and his family. A former Sunfish champion and author of the ...read more

Jane Russell & the RCC Pilotage Foundation If you have a yen for sailing across the Pond to explore the delights of Northern Europe or the Mediterranean, you’d best do some homework first. There’s no better primer than this weighty tome, now in its 7th edition. It’s crammed with ...read more

I think anyone who has sailed more than 200,000 miles has earned the right to reflect, inform, advise, entertain and encourage other sailors, and that is just what Jimmy Cornell does with this lavishly illustrated 400-page book. Appropriately subtitled “A Life of Adventure,” ...read more

By Dennison Berwick (Voyage Press, $15.99) If you’re not mechanically inclined, even the simplest maintenance tasks on a diesel engine and its associated paraphernalia can be daunting. There are plenty of books on the subject, but many of them assume a certain level of knowledge ...read more

September 19, 1974, 0400. The 40ft sloop Vela rocked gently, lines creaking with the steady motion of following seas. City lights glowed on the distant horizon like a beacon marking their destination: Suva, the capital of Fiji. After five days of sailing from the tiny island ...read more

An acknowledged expert in the study of drogues and sea anchors (not the same thing, as is clearly explained), Earl Hinz has written a comprehensive and thoroughly enjoyable analysis of drag devices and their practical application. Deploying a drag device to “park” and stabilize ...read more

In this comprehensive collection of short stories and poems, lifelong sailor Bill Harmon reveals how time spent on the water can affect time spent on land. With three decades of sailing experience, he has no shortage of adventures to share. Through Harmon’s original writings on ...read more

In the opening chapter, appropriately titled “Fear,” author George Michelsen Foy makes a compelling point about navigation: “From the start, staying alive has depended on navigation: the art of figuring out our position and in which direction to travel.” In fact, he’s referring ...read more

SKIPPERING A SMALL KEELBOAT Here, author Grant Headifen introduces a new kind of learning style, the hybrid eBook. Scan the QR codes in each chapter and you are taken to online graphics, animations and tutorials that help you grasp the concepts quickly and easily; it’s almost ...read more

The thud of a book landing on a desk is a rare pleasure in this digital age, much more satisfying than the ping of an email or text alert. Kindle has its place, but there’s nothing like paper to get a lasting message across. Good sailing fiction is a rare commodity these ...read more