It could be said that the British RYA Ocean Yachtmaster Syllabus contains all anyone who speaks English needs to make the jump from coastal passagemaking to worldwide cruising. Certainly, with the exception of detailed instruction regarding ice navigation, my own experience has borne this out. Ocean Sailing was put together as a concise guide to illuminate the RYA syllabus. As such it handles the theory and practice of navigation, weather, passage planning and a number of other associated topics. It does not set out to be a compendium of all you could ever want to know about deep-water seafaring.

The book begins with a large section on celestial navigation which is, to all intents and purposes, my original text for the same publisher on that subject (see below), so don’t buy both books. It goes on to discuss ocean weather, passage planning and making, plus the realistic use of GPS in an ocean context. Navigators coming to terms with ‘astro’ might be relieved to learn that maths was never my strong point. This vital area is therefore written from my own experience of navigating around the Atlantic in the days before GPS was heard of. Ten pages in, you already have your sextant in your hands. Thereafter, the practice marches hand in hand with a theoretical explanation based on as few numbers as possible.

The publishers have done a fine job with full colour and a number of leading schools are recommending the book as a course companion. I hope Ocean Sailing helps you out.

Contents

• Celestial Navigation
• Deep-water Meteorology including tropical revolving storms
• Ocean Passage planning

Colour photographs and charts. Paperback 95 pages