I’ve just finished Bucking the Tide by David Buckman, published by Custom Communications, Maine, in 2010. There will be an extract from this book soon in my Yachting World column, but don’t wait until then. This guy is up with the very best of nautical writers. Small boat; great read.

I just heard from a man about the initiative to encourage Coastal Rowing & Racing around the Scottish Coastline and Lochs. He has built a St Ayles Skiff and I immediately thought of a book he might like to read.
It’s called ‘From Tree to Sea’, by Ted Frost.  It was published by Terence Dalton in [...]

Summersdale, the publisher of travel books, including one of my own (‘Good Vibrations’), have just sent me their reprint of Sir Francis Chichester’s ‘The Lonely Sea and the Sky’. I remember reading this many years ago, but it encouraged me to have a another look, especially since in the interim I’d had the chance to fly [...]

A correspondent from Canada has written to remind me of that wonderful book, ‘Two Years Before The Mast’ by Richard Henry Dana. This was originally published in 1840 and was the first book penned from the point of view of a common seaman. It tells of his treacherous voyage around Cape Horn to the newly [...]

I’ve just unearthed a couple of extracts for my Yachting World column, ‘Great Seamanship’. Every month, I introduce an interesting passage from the endless store of riches in nautical literature. This time we’ve two related books; ‘A voyage in the Sunbeam’ by Lady Brassey and A Saga of the Sunbeam penned by a guest on [...]

I enjoy browsing through second-hand bookshops and on my latest cruise I was lucky enough to get a good haul of nautical books. One of the finds was, ‘The Yachtsman’s Annual and Who’s Who 1938-1939’ edited by Adlard Coles. One of the great things about books like this is the wealth of line drawings of [...]

NAUTICAL BOOK CORNER
One of my correspondents, Les Singfield, has alerted me to a delightful book called, ‘The Log of the Olivia’ by William A Power. He was a Victorian yachtsman who sailed his 25 ton cutter from Dublin to such places as Norway, Scotland and Spain. It starts in 1859 and the book, published [...]

BOOK CORNER
Ros, my wife, is always on the lookout for nautical books, especially by female authors. Her latest ‘find’ was ‘A Boat Called Martha’ by Rozelle Raynes. It’s mostly about the adventures Rozelle, often single-handed, has had with her engineless folkboat over forty years, visiting Scandinavia and NW Europe. It shows you don’t need a big boat to have a good time. There’s delightful sketches too.

NAUTICAL BOOK CORNER
This week I’m reading Seaspray and Whisky by Norman Freeman. It’s a rollicking Merchant Navy account of a voyage made notable by the broaching of a cargo of Scotch. The characters are unmissable. It reminds me of my time on a British coaster back in the Seventies. The narrator is the ship’s Sparks. Delightfully [...]

NAUTICAL BOOK CORNER
This week I’m reading Seaspray and Whisky by Norman Freeman. It’s a rollicking Merchant Navy account of a voyage made notable by the broaching of a cargo of Scotch. The characters are unmissable. It reminds me of my time on a British coaster back in the Seventies. The narrator is the ship’s Sparks. [...]