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Books

hodgmo

hodgmo

Still Floating
2014 was a good year for hurricanes and reading. Some of the latter was out of this world.

“Lee Shore Blues” by the one-and-only ‘barn door’ Peter Heiberg scorched furrows in my laugh lines, reading it was an unforgettable experience. Aside from being a memorable and highly recommended read, LSB has a great bibliography. One of my favorites from that list so far is “The Curve of Time” by M. Blanchet.

Then, while sailing home, I really enjoyed “If by Sea: The Forging of the American Navy” by G. Daughan, followed immediately by the engrossing WWII trilogy by Rick Atkinson (“Army at Dawn,” “The Day of Battle,” and “The Guns at Last Light”). These books have pictures but they aren’t anything like the ones in LSB (B&W versus very colorful). In any case, these reads don’t pull any punches – folly, blood, and guts galore – but I came away with a much better, and I hope deeper, understanding of what we (individuals and nations) did and do in war.

But the inspiration for starting this thread is “The Martian” by Andy Weir. This is, hands down, the most amazing single-handed experience I've ever read. Hint: Mark Watney earned about 500 Foxxfyre awards.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18007564-the-martian
 
I particularly enjoyed "An Army at Dawn" inasmuch as I lived in the prewar Army as an Army Brat and my father took part in the North African "involvement" depicted by Atkinson. I had not known of the National Guard's poor performance. I also found his conclusion that the Army's performance improved after they had learned "to hate the enemy" very interesting. My approach as a commander in combat, was to call upon the troops to use their brains effectively. Don't do things the same way, day after day, etc.
Needless to say, I found Peter's "book list" to be a treasure.
 
"The Curve of Time" looks good and I'll have to give it a read!
I enjoyed "The Martian" and "Lee Shore Blues" this year as well. Never thought of the two as being related by 'single handling' until you pointed it out. :)
Just finished "In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette", which is a good one... and have been reading a lot of John Kretschmer stuff, which is like sailing candy, pretty tasty, but generally light weight. :)
 
Probably everyone knows this already but a great source of out of print books (and in print books as well) is www.addall.com. This is a site for used book stores to list their stock on and it is truly formidable. Having said that I just attempted to find Ann Davison's first book on the site and couldn't find it. Ann was the first woman to single hand across the Atlantic but her first book was even a better story than that. The bibliography that accompanies Lee Shore Blues only includes the books that I currently have on my bookshelves. Unfortunately books have a way of going walk about. I would like to re-reread Ann's first book (whose name is lost somewhere in the canyons of oldtimers disease) as well as John Caldwell's Desperate Voyage (somewhat in the same vein as the Tristan Jones books. He (TJ) was the worlds biggest liar apparently but that boy knew his way around a typewriter.)
For none marine related books I can't recommend George Macdonald Frasers Flashman series of books highly enough. I never thought I would enjoy historical fiction but I don't know when I've laughed so hard. Definitely not everyones cup of tea. I've never met anyone with internal genitalia who liked him. Go figure. He wrote one non fiction book that Ken might enjoy about the Burma campaign. My stepfather was there and loved the book. I wasn't there but also liked the book.
 
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Peter
What is the title of the Burma book? I would most definitely be interested. A long-ago Army Engineer predecessor of mine (knew his daughter) had been the engineer of Merrill's Marauders in that campaign. He never really recovered from ailments incurred in that operation. Pretty primative as viewed in this day and age of immediate helicopter removal of wounded and air resupply of food and ammo. They really had it rough! Jungle warfare is pretty formidable in any event, since
everything is encountered so close up.
 
Peter,
Ann Davidson's "My Ship Is So Small" is available (hard bound) at Barnes & Noble and Amazon, I think. There ought to be both hard and soft bound editions around, though. You might also enjoy her "Last Voyage" and other books, although they are not about singlehanding. --Pat
 
Pat, I think it was Last Voyage that I was thinking of (My ship is so Small is about the Atlantic crossing if I'm not mistaken). I think the reason I liked 'Last Voyage' so much was I was rebuilding a Bristol channel Pilot Cutter in Cornwall and part of their book was about rebuilding a Brixham trawler. My subsequent adventures were somewhat happier than theirs (not to blow the story). Ken, I will come up with the title for you, I probably have the book somewhere. My stepfather was a very modest man and he didn't like to talk about it but it was an incredibly tough campaign (he would not knowingly buy a Japanese product until the day he died).
 
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Philpott said:
Sailing a Serious Ocean - by John Kretschmer; has anyone read it?
Click to expand...

Yep, good one. None of his books are bad. Good cruiser/heavy boat stories rather than racer/ULDB.

"Left for Dead: Surviving the Deadliest Storm in Modern Sailing History" about the 1979 Fastnet and "The Proving Ground" about the 98 Sydney Hobart are good adventure racing reads.
 
If you are looking for books that you can listen to on your ipod while you are sailing, then I strongly suggest that you go to Librivox.org. They have thousands of older books that are in the public domain. I have personally listened to hundreds of them while I'm sailing or hiking with my dog. Some of the sailing books include Moby Dick, Mutiny on the Bounty, Jules Verne books, Jack London books (right now I'm listening to The Jacket by Jack London) and tons and tons extra. I highly recommend it for everyone who spends time alone, like singlehanded sailors do.
 
Hard dinghy on the foredeck and 4 jugs lashed inside the shrouds tell me a lot! Not to mention the tiny foresail in almost every shot....
 
The fact that he was crew for Ted Turner including during the 79 Fastnet Race tells me a lot. And Lynn and Larry Pardey have sailed a bit and they keep a hard dingy on deck. He wasn't racing. Different strokes for different folks.
 
Good points, Phil. And he did have a furler, which reduces foredeck activity requirements. I did note that he wasn't towing the dinghy! In 1980 I singlehanded to Hilo. While tied up in Radio Bay, a 30 footer from Oregon came in and we became acquainted. Soon after we sailed for Lahina anchorage off Maui, and after anchoring, he asked me to pick him up in my inflatable, which I did. When I asked about his dinghy, he said he had left port in Oregon towing his hard dinghy, but the next morning all he was towing was a painter tied to an eyebolt and a scrap of plywood!
 
"... he asked me to pick him up in my inflatable, which I did. When I asked about his dinghy, he said he had left port in Oregon towing his hard dinghy, but the next morning all he was towing was a painter tied to an eyebolt and a scrap of plywood!"

LMAO!
 
I have posted this question before, but it seems to disappear.
Again: What was the trigger for adding the requirement for a "heavy weather foresail" to the entry "hoops" to jump thru for the SHTP? There has always been a storm jib and trysail or deep reef requirement for the mainsail. The "heavy weather jib" requirement appears to be new for this year. In the '90's, I found myself overcanvassed early in the race with a working jib and double reef main. As a result, I had a "heavy weather jib" made...it even had a reefing capability. Also put a 3rd reef in the main, even tho I did have a trysail. I used the jib at the start of the 2014 SHTP and flew it for two days. A good rig for an old man who doesn't like to change sails when the seas are boisterous!
 
At the end of 4.52[1] there is an "OR". If you have a storm jib you don't also have to carry the heavy air jib.

Also, I compared these heavy air sail requirements to those in the 2010 rules, since those were the last ones I had a hand in editing. This rule hasn't changed so there's no new "hoop" I can see.
 
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