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THE FROZEN FRONTIER.By Jane Maufe. Hardback, 0.68kg, 160mm x 242mm, 306 pages, full colour photographs. Published 2017.
The Northwest Passage proved so elusive for so long that many sailors and explorers believed it didn't actually exist. A sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Arctic archipelago, it wasn't until Roald Amundsen's 1903–06 voyage that the Northwest Passage's existence was finally proved, but the transit is treacherous and entirely dependent upon the ice giving up its grip for sufficient time to allow vessels through. This is not a journey undertaken by average sailors in small private boats.
But David Scott Cowper, 73, is no ordinary sailor. There are seven possible routes through the Northwest Passage, and Cowper had sailed through six of them singlehanded. This is the account of the sixth and most northerly – from ocean to ocean through the McClure Strait, this time accompanied by Jane Maufe, his crew. The account of the voyage is written by Jane and she captures Cowper's steely determination, resourcefulness in the face of adversity and humility in the wake of great achievement. Theirs is an old-fashioned relationship, where each party expects to fulfil their stereotypical roles.
But Jane is no push-over - she can steer a watch, haul sails, and leap ashore slippery pontoons with heavy ropes like the best of them. As well as a captivating story of adventurous sailing it provides a fascinating insight into the relationship between two serious and dedicated sailors, alone together in some of the most isolated and forbidding desolate wastes on earth. It is a relationship built on respect and high expectations, mutual ambition and also self-sacrifice, and the book is a uniquely revealing and charming account.
NZ$40.00 + delivery.
POLAR MARINER.By Captain Tom Woodfield. Paperback, 0.46kg, 171mm x 240mm, 202 pages, full colour photographs. Published 2016.
Captain Woodfield made 20 seasonal voyages to the Antarctic on three research ships between 1955 and 1974. Starting as a Junior Deck Officer he worked for The Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey which in 1964 became the British Antarctic Survey. He played a paramount role in the gradual change from using under-powered and poorly-equipped ships to the professionally-managed and sophisticated vessels of his last command.
The arts of exploration and survival during his early years in this majestic but unforgiving continent are described as attempts were made to establish research stations, support science, and survey in totally uncharted, ice-filled waters amidst often ferocious weather. Dramatic stories are featured such as the near loss of a ship in pack ice, the stranding of another in hurricane force winds and the collapse of an ice-cliff onto the vessel.
The pioneers of Antarctic exploration, the area’s history, the hardships and incredible achievements of those original seafarers are described. Yet polar navigation during the author’s years was not without peril and the near loss in ice of his first ship, the RRS Shackleton, the demise of her Master, and his ill-judged replacement and consequent dramas are fully told.
After a voyage of enormous responsibility, aged just 25, he transferred to the RRS John Biscoe as Chief Officer under a fine seaman but difficult disciplinarian. The highs and lows of their relationship are told as are vivid descriptions of predicaments they overcame such as being blown ashore in hurricane force winds and beset and crushed in pack ice. The first ventures of the John Biscoe into the Weddell Sea are recounted with information on the nature and movement of ice, its interrelationship with weather, and the methods of navigation in ice before the age of satellites.
Appointed to command the RRS Bransfield, he recounts her extraordinary maiden voyage when it was feared she would split in two. The battle with a horrendous storm at the end of his last voyage is fully described together with his final sentimental return to the Falklands.
NZ$50.00 + delivery.
MISSING THE BOAT.By Michael Hutchinson. Paperback, 0.18kg, 130mm x 198mm, 248 pages. Published 2010.
As a youngster in the nineteen eighties, Michael Hutchinson was passionate about sailing. He acquired a dinghy and crew, and spent his early years messing around on Belfast Lough. He learned to sail, race Mirrors and fling jellyfish accurately at passing competitors. In time, his salty daydreams became ambitious, encompassing the Olympic Games, America's Cup and Round the World yacht races. Trouble was, Hutchinson proved to be a deeply mediocre dinghy sailor, clocking up only one win in several seasons round the buoys. Although he was good enough at race tactics and seamanship, he lacked the sprinkling of gold dust that differentiates the very good performer from the brilliant. And so eventually, as is the way of sensible young men, he became disenchanted and stopped trying. Ironically, he then found he had a talent for cycling which took him as far as the Commonwealth Games.
Towards the end of his cycling career, Hutchinson decided to take a year out to discover if he really had the potential to realize his teenage dreams. With some difficulty and a number of funny stories, he joined the RORC circuit, the more serious end of yacht racing around the UK. At last he became a part of the scene at big, glamorous regattas like Cowes, Cork and Tarbert. His experiences ranged from finding himself the best tactician on a no-hope yacht to becoming a nobody on a La Rochelle racer. After that he geared up a notch, found a boat for the prestigious Swan Cup in Sardinia and moved on to St Tropez, where he ended up in an RIB chasing the sexiest yachts on the planet.
He had a good time, though really, not that much happened. But as with all good story-tellers, Michael Hutchinson has the knack of keeping us interested. He's a likeable character: amusing, deprecating and self-aware, and he writes with an appealing, conversational style.
NZ$30.00 + delivery.
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA.By Anthony Smith. Paperback, 0.20kg, 125mm x 198m, 196 pages. Published 2016. Colour Photographs
Octogenarian Anthony Smith's journey was originally inspired by both the Kontiki Expedition of Thor Heyerdahl (who he knew) and the incredible story of the survivors of a 1940 boat disaster, who spent 70 days adrift in the Atlantic, eventually reaching land emaciated and close to death. While this might sound like a voyage no-one would wish to emulate, to octogenarian Anthony Smith it sounded like an adventure, and he placed a typically straightforward advertisement in the Telegraph that read "Fancy rafting across the Atlantic? Famous traveller requires 3 crew. Must be OAP. Serious adventurers only." In his inimitable style, Smith details their voyage and the hardships they endured with a matter-of-fact air that makes his story seem all the more impressive. His advanced age allows him a wider perspective not only on the journey but on life itself, and his never-say-die attitude to the difficulty of the journey is inspirational. 'Old men ought to be explorers' said T.S. Eliot, and this book certainly gives a compelling argument in his favour.
A great story (a huge storm on the final night of the voyage almost wrecked them on a reef) and a call to action for the older generation - do not go quietly, says Anthony Smith, but seek out adventure as long as you are able....
NZ$30.00 + delivery.
THE GOOD LIFE.By Mallory Eaglewood. Paperback, 0.23kg, 140mm x 215m, 137 pages. Published 2015.
This book narrates the fascinating and sometimes dangerous but always thought-provoking adventures of the good ship Mah-lish. In a lighted-hearted and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny way, we enjoy Don and Esther Brown's odyssey around the South Pacific in the 1970's. The people and places you will meet in these pages will truly enhance your life - from the real Robinson Caruso in the Cook Islands to a gracious matriarch in Tonga and a dog who talks with dolphins. You will go hunting lobsters in the middle of the night on Mopelia and find humour in a terrific gale....
NZ$45.00 + delivery.
IN THE WAKE OF HEROES.Sailing's Greatest Stories.
Introduced by Tom Cunliffe. Paperback, 0.41kg, 128mm x 198m, 266 pages. Paperback Edition Published 2016.
Tom Cunliffe's name represents the gold standard of good yachting advice, and this book collects together his favourite extracts, all focusing on good seamanship in one way or another, from the classic and much-loved books that have instructed and inspired him over the decades.
Tom Cunliffe is one of the biggest names in the sailing world - an internationally renowned journalist and speaker, and the go- to guru when the BBC wants a presenter for a new TV series about maritime interests. For the last ten years he has edited the 'Great Seamanship' column of Yachting World magazine. Each column features an extract from a classic yachting book that covers an aspect of great seamanship. Tom introduces each extract by giving insightful background on the writer, their book and what makes their experience so worth reading about - and learning from.
This book comprises Tom's 40 favourite extracts, and covers the entire scope of yachting concerns, from small-boat handling to yacht racing to long-distance cruising and exploring.
Introduced in Tom's quintessential lively, engaging fashion, and illustrated with photos both from the original books and Tom's own archives, this beautifully packaged book contains a wealth of yachting wisdom and is a collection to be treasured.
NZ$25.00 + delivery.
MORE FASTER BACKWARDS.
By Christine Smith. Paperback, 0.39kg, 140mm x 215m, 302 pages. Published 2012.
On June 16, 2006, the David B left Bellingham, Washington bound for Juneau, Alaska, on her maiden voyage as a passenger vessel. Eight years earlier, Christine and Jeffrey had found the David B tucked behind a breakwater on Lopez Island. The tired old wooden boat, built in 1929, was showing her age. When the young couple stepped aboard the neglected vessel, her sturdy work-boat style captured their hearts with an ageless beauty that only the young dreamers could see.
Their desire was to own and operate a small expedition cruise ship in Alaska. With their love for one another and without much income, they pinned their hopes and sheer will on rebuilding the dying boat. What they thought would be a two-year project, became an eight-year tug-of-war between time and money as they raced to finish rebuilding the David B before it was too late.
More Faster Backwards is the story of Christine and Jeffrey’s uncertain struggle to rebuild the David B and their journey to Alaska on an untested seventy-seven year old boat to begin the life of their dreams
NZ$50.00 + delivery.
BEER IN THE BILGES.By Alan Boreham, Peter Jinks & Bob Rossiter. Paperback, 0.58kg, 230mm x 153m, 350 pages, Black and White Images. Published 2012.
In the early 1980s, after the sexual revolution and before the explosion of the electronic age, the remote islands of Polynesia begged to be explored. For three experienced sailors who dreamed of sailing through the idyllic South Pacific, it was a perfect time to embark on a quest through some of the most amazing cruising destinations in the world. As New Zealander "Hollywood" Bob Rossiter, Australian Peter Jinks, and Canadian Alan Boreham set off from different points in the world, none of them has any idea that a series of unanticipated events will eventually bring them together in the tropical swelter of Pago Pago. Along their journey lined with unexpected moments, the sailors meet a wide array of eclectic characters, including Sharkbite Charlie; Rosie, the three-hundred-pound dancer; and Gunter, the mysterious German chef from South America. Beer in the Bilges offers a fascinating glimpse into sailing voyages to the other side of the world where three men join forces and have to rely on their skills, their wit, and, most importantly, on each other as they embark on an unforgettable nautical adventure.
NZ$55.00 + delivery.
THE PRINCESS MATILDA COMES HOME.By Shane Spall. Paperback, 0.29kg, 127mm x 200m, 340 pages, Full colour photographs. Published 2013.
Shane and Tim Spall are on the second leg of a very big adventure, taking their barge (The Princess Matilda) around the coast of Britain. Navigating Britain's dangerous seas can be terrifying, but exhilarating. Shane and Tim get lost in busy shipping lanes, accidentally sail through an Army firing range, experience the matchless beauty of the Caledonian Canal and meet a whole host of people who help them on their way, before finally arriving back in London for an emotional homecoming.
'The Princess Matilda Comes Home' is a funny and warm-hearted story about sharing a great adventure with someone you love.
Was NZ$30.00 + delivery.
Now NZ$10.00 + delivery.
THE VOYAGES OF THE PRINCESS MATILDA.By Shane Spall. Paperback, 0.31kg, 127mm x 192m, 375 pages, 2 sections of full colour photographs. Published 2013.
Shane and Tim Spall embark on an epic adventure with their Dutch barge, The Princess Matilda. A few years previously, Tim had been diagnosed with leukaemia and doctors weren't sure he would live. Now the Spalls are determined to make the most of all life has to offer and set out to explore the coast of their beautiful homeland.
As inexperienced mariners they struggle at first, but are soon helped on their way by harbourmasters, coastguards and fellow sailors. From an idyllic summer spent on a Cornish river to terrifying times on the open sea, they never give up on their dream: to take Matilda all the way to Wales
This book won the 'Travel Narrative Book of the Year' award in the British Travel Press Awards in 2012.
NZ$30.00 + delivery.
COYOTE LOST AT SEA. The Story of Mike Plant, America's Daring Solo CircumnavigatorBy Julia Plant. Hardback, 0.52kg, 160mm x 235m, 239 pages, black & white photographs. Published 2013.
Coyote Lost at Sea is the story of Mike Plant, one of the most exciting and daring round-the-world solo sailors of his time. Mike's untamed courage and charismatic personality naturally drew fans and admireres who wondered what kind of risk he would take next. His younger sister, Julia Plant, had been one of those admirers until Mike's flame burned too brightly and she needed to find her own way. This distant, yet ultimate, love for her brother makes Julia the perfect one to tell his story. She reveals a vivid, raw version of her brother - a boy who spent most of his teen years and twenties getting into trouble with the law, but who later grew up to be a sailing living legend. Her insight into his personality and what made him so fearless helps us understand why Mike would take such a gamble with a boat like Coyote. Her research and interviews with Mike's friends, fellow competitors, and sailing experts paints a clearer picture of Mike's last days with the controversial Coyote, a mystery that has intrigued the world of sailing for two decades.
NZ$40.00 + delivery.
THE UNLIKELY VOYAGE OF JACK DE CROW, A Mirror Odyssey from North Wales to the Black Sea.By A J Mackinnon. Pbk, 128mm x 197mm, 350 pages, monochrome drawings. Reprinted 2014
This delightful true story about a dinghy adventure will gladden the spirit of any cruising and dinghy sailor.
Jack de Crow is the Mirror dinghy, named by the author after a departed pet bird. A couple of quiet week's sailing on the river Severn river in Britain was the author's original intention - however "somehow things got out of hand", as he puts it, and a year later he had reached Romania in the Black Sea and was still going!
Equipped with cheerful optimism and a pith helmet - possibly in lieu of a passport! - this "Odysseus-in-a-dinghy" takes the reader with him from the borders of north Wales to the Black Sea: 4,900 kilometres over salt and fresh water, under sail, oars or at the end of a tow rope. His travels passed through twelve countries, 282 locks and encountered numerous trials and adventures, including and encounter with Balkan pirates.
This is a first hand account of an epic voyage, undertaken with courage, and recounted with flair and humour. The writing is excellent - perhaps to be expected from a teacher of English!
NZ$28.00 + delivery.
THE WELL AT THE WORLD'S END.By A J Mackinnon. Paperback, 135mm x 210mm, 298 pages, monochrome drawings. Published in 2011.
When A.J. Mackinnon quits his job in Australia, he knows only that he longs to travel to the Well at the World's End, a mysterious pool on a remote Scottish island whose waters, legend has it, hold the secret to eternal youth.
Determined not to fly, he sets out with a rucksack, some fireworks and a map of the world and trusts chance to take care of the rest. By land and by sea, by train, truck, horse and yacht, he makes his way across the globe - and through a series of hilarious adventures. He survives a bus crash in Australia, marries a princess in Laos, is attacked by Komodo dragons and does time in a Chinese jail. The next lift - or the next near-miss - is always just a happy accident away.
This is the astonishing true story of a remarkable voyage, and old-fashioned quest by a modern-day adventurer.
NZ$35.00 + delivery.
DOLPHINS UNDER MY BED.By Sandra Clayton. Paperback, 0.28kg, 128mm x 196mm, 271 pages. Published 2011.
At a time when their contemporaries already had one eye focused on their pension, and conscious that age or ill health could prevent them sailing away to warmer climes, Sandra and David Clayton left the world of work behind to grasp their dream.
NZ$25.00 + delivery.
TURTLES IN OUR WAKE.By Sandra Clayton. Paperback. 225 pages, 130mm x 200mm.
Most people long to escape - from the weather., the commute, the routine. Sailing off in a forty-foot boat called Voyager comes at a prine, howver. Indeed, for David and Sandra Clayton it meant selling their house and possessions with all the memories and emotions attached to them. But the result was to prove life-enhancing!
This book is the sequel to the popular 'Dolphins Under My Bed', which charted Sandra and David's first long, 2000 mile journey.
NZ$23.00 + delivery.
A THOUSAND MILES FROM ANYWHERE.By Sandra Clayton. Paperback, 0.21kg, 128mm x 198mm, 287 pages. Published 2013.
This is the third book in the Voyager chronicles. Sandra's first book, Dolphins Under My Bed, describes their passage from chilly England to a warm Mediterranean. Her second, Turtles In Our Wake, follows them to some of its loveliest islands.
Now, with the same wry humour and eye for detail, Sandra takes her reader along with them on their biggest adventure yet. It begins with the Atlantic Islands - Madeira, the Canaries and cape Verde - follows their 2,800-mile Atlantic crossing to the Caribbean, and culminates at the shores of America.
Sandra's engaging writing style makes her books a real delight for sailors and non-sailors alike.
NZ$25.00 + delivery.
PACIFIC ODYSSEY.By Gwenda Cornell. Paperback, 0.25kg, 128mm x 196mm, 267 pages. Published 2012.
The South Pacific conjures dreams of romantic charm and escape from the pressures of modern life - but is this a true picture of real life on the Islands?
Gwenda Cornell sailed to these islands to discover the quality of life, history and culture of the peoples who inhabit these remote and beautiful places. Sailing with her husband Jimmy Cornell and two young children on the family's 36ft yacht Aventura, she explores many corners of the Pacifc that can still only be reached by sea.
The odyssey takes her to the mysteries of Easter Island, to Samoa and to the descendents of the Bounty mutineers on Pitcairn. She witnesses history in the making at Tuvalu's birth as a nation and finds the last royal nose-flute player in Tonga.
The exuberance with which the Pacific Islanders enjoy their lives bears witness to Gwenda Cornell's final analysis that 'the South Pacifc remains a peaceful oasis in a troubled world and the "Pacific Way" can serve as an inspiration to those who live in a fast-moving competitive society.'
NZ$37.00 + delivery.
MAROONED ON MOGMOG.By Jennifer Barrie. Paperback, 0.42kg, 153mm x 234mm, 278 pages, colour pictures. Published 2011.
'Our sea voyage of a lifetime: it started with a dream and felt like it ended with the shipwreck...Who's even heard of shipwrecks these days? Hello, this is the 21st century not the 1800s! But that's exactly what happened to us, a modern, mostly normal family from Western Australia.'
In early 2010, Jennifer and Andrew, along with their two young daughters, washed up - literally - on the tiny island of Mogmog in Micronesia. Fortunately for the Barrie family, Mogmog is inhabited by a bunch of very friendly locals...or at least that's what they initially thought!
This is the true story of a modern-day Swiss Family Robinson who lived to tell the tale of surviving a shipwerck and months stranded on one of the world's most remote islands. Sometimes paradise isn't always what it seems...
NZ$40.00 + delivery.
SAILING THE DREAMBy Mike Perham. Paperback, 0.24kg, 292 pages, 127mm x 198mm, full colour photos. Published in 2011.
More people have been in space than have sailed solo around the earth. It is a journey fraught with danger at every turn, with little time for sleep or pause for rest. It is the toughest challenge in the nautical world. At the age of seventeen, Mike Perham joined the select band of sailors to achieve that feat.
In Sailing the Dream, Mike tells the story of the incredible 30,000-mile voyage that made him the youngest circumnavigator in history. As he raced across the waves in his Open 50 yacht TotallyMoney.com, the journey soon became a struggle against wild seas, failing equipment and the loneliness of the long-distance sailor. Despite the boat's being knocked over and battered by the oceans and having to put in for damage repairs that turned the trip into a nine-month odyssey, Mike battled on, surfing down fifty-foot waves at speeds of up to 28 knots to realize his goal.
Yet through all the difficulties, Mike's positive attitude shines through. Sailing the Dream is an inspirational and thrilling tale of adventure on the high seas, and how you can be as big as the dreams you dare to live.
NZ$30.00 + delivery.
ENDLESS SEA.
By Amyr Klink, Paperback, 150mm x 225mm, 262 pages. Monochrome photos.
Amyr Klink, whose sailing exploits have made him a hero in Brazil, tells of his daring singlehanded circumnavigation below the Artarctic Convergence. Surfing the waves in his custom-built 50-foot "aluminium red truck", Paratii, Klink enjoys the quiet confidence that comes from proper planning, common-sense technology, and a lifelong fascination with the history of Southern Ocean sailing.
A modern Moitessier, sailing before an Aerorig mast, Klink proves his seamanship handling tricky boat repairs while underway, navigating icebergs, negotiating gales and williwaws, and surfing gigantic waves.
NZ$40.00 + delivery.
THE MOTION OF THE OCEAN.By Janna Cawrse Esarey, Paperback, 138mm x 213mm, 312 pages.
Meet Janna and Graeme. After a decade-long tango (together, apart, together, apart), they are back in love - but the stress of nine-to-five is seriously hampering their happiness. So they quit their jobs, tie the knot, and untie the lines on a beat-up old sailboat for a most unusual honeymoon: a two-year voyage across the Pacific. But passage from first date to first mate is anything but smooth sailing. From the rugged Pacific Northwest coast to the blue lagoons of Polynesia to bustling Asian ports, Janna and Graeme find themselves at the mercy of poachers, under the spell of cross-dressers, and under the gun of a less-than-sober tattooist. And they encounter do-or-die moments that threaten their safety, their sanity and their marriage.
Join Janna and Graeme's 17,000-mile journey and their quest to resolve the uncertainties so many couples face: How do you know if you've really found the One? How do you balance duty to others while preserving space for yourself? And, when the waters get rough, do you jump ship, or do you learn to navigate the world...together?
NZ$36.00 + delivery.
NARROW DOG TO WIGAN PIER.By Terry Darlington. Paperback, 0.27kg, 128mm x 198mm, 352 pages, published 2012.
At 75, Terry and Monica Darlington had done everything they could think of doing, including building a business and becoming athletes and running a literary society. Lately they had become boating adventurers and Terry a bestselling writer.
In their Midlands canal town in November, life was looking dull and short on surprises. Then their famous canal boat was destroyed by fire. Within a few days they had bought a new one and they headed north in the Phyllis May 2 - to Liverpool, Lancaster, York, the Pennines and Wigan Pier. Terry recorded the journey and alongside it the story of his life and his marriage and his whippet Jim, with his broken ear like a flat cap, and Monica's whippet Jess, the Flying Catastrophe.
Another classic Narrow Dog book, this gloriously funny, affecting and beautifully told story brims with canals and rivers and whippets, and adventures all over the world, and the famous and fascinating people the Darlingtons have met.
NZ$25.00 + delivery.
NARROW DOG TO CARCASSONE. By Terry Darlington, Paperback, 126mm x 197mm, 425 pages.
When they retired Terry and Monica Darlington decided to sail their canal narrowboat across the Channel and down to the Mediterranean, together with their whippet Jim. They took advice from experts, who said they would die, together with their whippet Jim.
On the Phyllis May you dive through six-foot waves in the Channel, are swept down the terrible Rhone, and fight for your life in a storm among the flamingos of the Camargue. You meet the French nobody meets - poets, captains, historians, drunks, bargees, men with guns, scholars, madmen - they all want to know the people on the painted boat and their narrow dog.
You visit the France nobody knows - the backwaters of Flanders, the canals beneath Paris, the heavenly Yonne, the lost Burgundy Canal, the islands of the Saone, and the forbidden ways to the Mediterranean. Aliens, dicks, trolls, vandals, gongoozlers, killer fish and the walking dead all stand between our three innocents and their goal - many-towered Carcassonne.
NZ$27.00 + delivery.
NARROW DOG TO INDIAN RIVER.By Terry Darlington. Paperback, 127mm x 198mm, 431 pages.
No one has ever sailed an English narrowboat in the USA before...for reasons that become clear as Terry and Monica Darlington and their whippet Jim sail down the little-known Eastern Seaboard of the USA - including thirty-mile sea crossings, blasting heat, tornadoes, alligators, and the walking dead...
But the real danger comes from the Good Ole Boys and Girls of the Deep South waiting along the shore. Captains and planters, heroes and drunks, dancing dicks and beautiful spies all want to meet the Brits on their painted boat and their thin dog and take them home and party them to death.
Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida - lost arcadias, shining sounds, and incomparable cities - a thousand miles unfold at six miles an hour on a hilarious, dangerous and always surprising journey through a wonderland.
Was NZ$28.00 + delivery.
Now NZ$10.00 + delivery.
SNOW PETREL. A father-son voyage to the windiest place on earthBy Jon Tucker. Hardback, 0.38Kg, 148mm x 210mm, 277 pages, full colour photographs, published 2011.
In the summer of 2006, a thirty-one-year-old expat kiwi, Ben Tucker, set off from Tasmania in his small home-built yacht with the tentative goal of reaching maniland Antarctica. As crew he had recruited his youngest brother Matt. His destination was the remote Mawson's hut at Cape Denison - statistically the windiest sea-level location on the planet - with a possible diversion to the South Magnetic Pole. His budget could not even stretch to a second-hand radar.....
This fascinating voyage is recounted by his father Jon, who was allowed to join his sons as their cabin-boy at the last minute - on the promise of good behaviour. And after reading the book I can honestly say his behaviour was very good, as it can't have been easy to sit back and let your son take all the responsibility. But he did and it is truly a great book. What a wonderful family they are as Jon frequently mentions his wife Barbara and their other 3 sons as parallel to the story of this trip he tells the story of a family with 5 home-schooled boys aboard their traditional ocean going yacht "New Zealand Maid".
Book NZ$52.00 + delivery.
Also available in DVD version
NZ$40.00 + delivery.
SOLITAIRE SPIRIT.By Les Powles. Paperback. 311 pages, 130mm x 200mm, monochrome and colour photos.
Les Powles had just eight hours sailing experience when he set off solo around the world. Many novices would be content to simply dream of such a voyage - but not Les!
In the course of three successful circumnavigations he got lost in the middle of the Atlantic, made landfall on the wrong continent, coped with week-long storms, lost friends at sea and, on his third voyage (when in his seventies), was given up for dead, only to arrive back home months later in a skeletal state.
NZ$25.00 + delivery.
CHILD OF THE SEA.By Doina Cornell. Paperback, 0.49kg, 156mm x 233mm, 218 pages, colour photos. Published in 2012.
Child of the Sea is the true story of a young girl growing up aboard the family's 36 foot yacht whilst sailing more than 68,000 miles around the world and visiting 54-countries on the way. Unique among sailing memoirs, this book expresses a child's point of view, and was written for children, inclduing those who have no experience of sailing at all.
From the age of 7 to 14 Doina Cornell, daughter of bluewater sailing guru Jimmy Cornell, enjoyed a childhood that most children couldn't imagine - swimming, diving and playing the days away in deserted anchorages and visiting some of the most beautiful islands in the world. The book describes in vivid detail a sailing family's onboard life, from balmy trade wind ocean passages to heart-stopping near-misses with coral reefs and over-friendly whales.
This is also a tale of a girl's coming of age in the South Pacific, and the difficulties of growing up close to other cultures and values, away from regular contact with school and friends of the same age.
Child of the Sea evokes a unique and appealing childhood spent at sea with undreamed-of freedom, at one with nature and far removed from a materialistic world- until the family return home.
NZ$35.00 + delivery.
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