Sailing Adventure Book Recommendation?

[Brick]

I've finished reading "Adrift". One question. I was surprised to read how the black material for the solar stills decayed and fell apart in sea water. Is it impossible to make a more long lasting still that won't decay? Are modern stills more robust?

 

[chart5011]

Try 'Desperate Voyage' by Caldwell. Great read.

 

[Spuddy]

Desperate Voyage is a good read. And in the same vein, there's Shane Acton and his circumnav in Shrimpy. Have I got the names right? There's a link in an earlier thread to a pdf file.

 

[Kukri]

First hand accounts of real exploration, under sail, written by the man who did it?

Easy:

HW Tilman, the last man to actually explore under sail (two mountains and a cape are named after his boat, and a pass in the Himalayas is named after him) His sailing career ran from 1952 when he sailed to Patagonia and made the first crossing of the Patagonian ice cap to 1977 when he was lost at sea.

Tilman was a master of English prose with a lovely dry sense of humour. Do try the Sailing Exploration omnibus volume, in print, gettable from Amazon.

 

[Humblebee]

First hand accounts of real exploration, under sail, written by the man who did it?

Easy:

HW Tilman, the last man to actually explore under sail (two mountains and a cape are named after his boat, and a pass in the Himalayas is named after him) His sailing career ran from 1952 when he sailed to Patagonia and made the first crossing of the Patagonian ice cap to 1977 when he was lost at sea.

Tilman was a master of English prose with a lovely dry sense of humour. Do try the Sailing Exploration omnibus volume, in print, gettable from Amazon.

Seconded, anything by Tilman is worth a read.

 

[Ehbendisdonc]

My wife, Valerie, enjoyed "Mrs. Chippy's Last Expedition: The Remarkable Journal of Shackleton's Polar-Bound Cat".

Dallas Murphy's 'Rounding the Horn' is unputdownable. And you can't read Slocum often enough.

 

[Tom Price]

More books

Sold our Oxford house to . . . Alan Villiers. Amazing, quiet, laid-back man. Went round to his place and dotted around were exquisite ship models in glass cases - all of which he'd skippered - phew!

David Lewis wrote Daughters of the Wind in which my late friend Priscille Cairns accompanied him as navigator across the Pacific..

My favourite Eric Hiscock is Cruising - taught me all I know (and have forgotten.)

On the wind of a Dream by Victor Clark tells of his circumnavigation in a Hillyard ketch which was the first boat I skippered out of Salcombe.

Another favourite is Sanderson's To Sea in Carpet Slippers - and I now do just that!

Many more suggestions, better stop!

 

[ossy moses]

South Sea Vagabond by John Wray in the thirties,about building the boat in NZ and sailing her up to the islands and Australia,areal classic.The boat Ngataki passed thru Grenada WI inabout 1994 and looked great.Desperate Voyage by John Caldwell written in late forties about sailing from Panama to Australia another classic.Ill try and think of more. yours aye Frank.

 

[ivylikes]

"I'm most after first person accounts, fact, and if someone could recommend a book where the parrot actually lives through the journey that would be nice too.
Something older than the previous two books would be interesting. Maybe from the voyages of Cook, Tasman, Magellan, anything like that? "
Try 'The Last Voyage, Captain Cook's lost diary' by Hammond Innes...

 

[Poignard]

If you want something really early, try :

'Hakluyt's Voyages'

 

[wazza]

I second the Joshua Slocum "Sailing Alone Around the World"

Here's another one "Surviving the Savage Sea" Dougal Robertson

 

[Humblebee]

From an earlier age...

Try "Three years before the mast" by Richard Dana. A classic and a readable one too.

 

[Poignard]

Try "Three years before the mast" by Richard Dana. A classic and a readable one too.

Two years actually. Although it probably felt like three

 

[Cap'n Jack]

"King of the Australian Coast"

Brick - a must read, if you can find a copy, is Marsden Horden's "King of the Australian Coast" Its the account of Phillip Parker King's exploration of Australia's Kimberley Coast early in 1820's

Lt. King sailed three times around Australia in a 59' Mermaid with 20 crew. And Marsden is such an accurate historian with a flair for bringing life to what must have been a harrowing undertaking. The hardback has nine maps drawn by King, who was the son of Phillip Gidley King, one of the first NSW Governors.
Highly recommended

 

[Mrnotming]

1421 by Gavin Menzies

This I found a great read, China setting out to take over the world.A very big fleet which used up much of China's then resources.Much research went into the book, which has echoes to the present day in view of China's now superpower status.