Books and DVDs

An amateur film by amateur sailors, Sail Vicarious is a how-to for would-be cruisers. Learn with them as they research, buy, and refit their new boat in this first of a DVD series that will follow Spencer and Kathleen’s circumnavigation. Though fairly basic, Sail Vicarious is thorough and straightforward—a good resource for beginners. Boat walk-throughs help present boating

Distant Shores: Cruising the Middle East, a sailing documentary produced by Paul and Sheryl Shard, allows you to enjoy the discovery of new places and cultures from the comfort of your own couch. This three-disk DVD set includes thirteen 30-minute episodes of their sailing-adventure TV series and contains some excellent sailing footage; the focus is on exotic destinations rather than

Distant Shores: Cruising the Middle East, a sailing documentary produced by Paul and Sheryl Shard, allows you to enjoy the discovery of new places and cultures from the comfort of your own couch. This three-disk DVD set includes thirteen 30-minute episodes of their sailing-adventure TV series and contains some excellent sailing footage; the focus is on exotic destinations rather than

In one of the best-written and most enjoyable boatbuilding books I’ve read—and I’ve read a few—author and journalist Larry Cheek provides the perfect blend of research and memoir. With little experience of either sailing or woodworking, he decides to build a wooden sailing dinghy from a set of plans by Sam Devlin, a designer of wood/epoxy stitch-and-glue small boats. What follows combines gentle

I well remember watching, at the age of 11, lone sailor Francis Chichester sail into Plymouth, England, at the end of his solo circumnavigation. In the weeks and months before, we had seen the story unfold on our TV screen and marveled that one man could sail what I then considered to be an enormous boat singlehanded. Upon stepping ashore Chichester was knighted by the queen, and later his boat

The Gulf Stream: Tiny Plankton, Giant Bluefin, and the Amazing Story of the Powerful River in the AtlanticWhat do Portuguese men-of-war, pirates, Benjamin Franklin, and Ernest Hemingway have in common? They are all closely associated with the Gulf Stream.In this wonderful book, Stan Ulanski ties together many facets of this great river in the sea, including its

“June 30, 1861, CSN Sumter. Mississippi Delta. Bound for the sea. Blazing sun, thick haze.The eyes of Commander Raphael Semmes are burning, and there is nowhere to turn for relief. It’s high tide at Head of the Passes, his only chance to break from the cage Abe Lincoln’s sea boys have built round him and New Orleans. And right now the South’s little bark-rigged raider, the ship channel

DJ-turned-author Michael Buckley has hosted his popular Sunday-morning program, Voices of the Chesapeake Bay, on the Annapolis, Maryland, radio station WRNR for the past seven years. His interviews with a steady stream of Chesapeake locals and authorities on the bay amount to an oral history of the area, with authorities ranging from paleontologists to a former governor and numerous

We sailors rarely have to defend our sport because, well, we avoid arguing with nonsailors. Still, the occasional skirmish does occur, usually within range of a glass of something. “A bargument,” says Doug Hanks, “is a debate with no right or wrong answer, simple enough to discuss after three beers”—for example, Who would win in a war between California and Texas?When Hanks met up with

With stunning marine photography and a nautical quote for every day of the year, Sailor’s Wisdom makes a great addition to any sailor’s library. In this impressive coffee-table tome, Philip Plisson—an acclaimed maritime photographer with over 400,000 photographs and 40 books under his belt—captures the many moods and aspects of the sea and those who live and work around it. From