Oy deserved better.

The Walking Dude had it coming.

Loved the Gunslinger but the ending wow Didn't care for that.
Long live Walter.

A personal favorite is: Adrift I don't remember the author's name, but he still holds the record for survival at sea.

You might like "The life of Pi" then. A kid survives 200+ days on a life raft. Pretty crazy story when you get to the end.

Phil!

Return in the Wake by Cathy Hawkins?

Which of those three was the best read? Sounds like Fastnet from a glance...

Got me interested. Give me a review!

"Tinkerbelle" by Robert Manry. Story of his 1965 voyage across the Atlantic in a 13 1/2-foot sailboat, the smallest ever to have made the crossing at the time.

JJ,

It was a very long time now since I read these books, some around 20yrs.
I went through a phase of reading about sailing disasters so I could learn from the mistakes of
others while I was builing a 32ft cat.

Return in the Wake- was a great read.
If you ever dreamed about taking on the European race cct in a multi you built yourself
and doing well it is a great read. Ian and Kathy pitchpoling of their Twiggy Tri in the North sea
and their survival and eventual rescue was good. How they built their next tri while one working and the other
building etc was also touching.

I learnt a lot from Fastnet Force 10 which claimed 15 lives. It was a good read and would
help me from making many of their mistakes that needlessly cost lives.

Fatal Storm on the other hand was about the 98 Hobart Race that cost 6 lives.
It was an extremely well written and captivating book to read.

The reality of the conditions experienced by the crews and even the danger experienced by helicopter crews executing
rescues in 80ft waves was chilling. That book taught me that to save your life in that situation....
just don't be there in the first place.

How they only lost 6 lives is amazing. My guess, they learnt a lot from the 79 Fastnet race.
Interestingly, right through Fastnet Force 10 they keep saying the conditions were so bad they could be compared to those off
the south east Australian coast. While they were bad they were nothing like experinced in the 98 Hobart Race.
Had the same mistakes been made in 98 as 79 they would have lost
2or 3 times those lost in 79.

I think they are all worth reading. But Retrun in the wake and Fastnet Force 10 don't leave you with the feeling of helplessness you get from reading Fatal Storm.

Regards,
Phill

Not sailing but water related is "raising the dead" or "Diving into Darkness" by Phillip Finch.

Its the story of the deep cave diver Robert Shaws fatal attempt to recover a body in one of the deepest caves ever attempted, 900 feet. An amazing twist at the end, and a real insight into this sport.

As a taster there is a youtube of the dive, not for the faint of heart...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mF4iFJ-G74o

Gareth

"SURVIVE THE SAVAGE SEA" By DOUGLAS ROBERTSON A true account of survival. In 1972 this family sailing in the Pacific in a 43 foot schooner was hit by killer whales and sank in 60 seconds

Sailing Around the World Alone- By Joshua Slocum, historical and interesting.

Kirt

Can't remember the title exactly, but maybe it was "into thin air", about the Everest climb that went terribly wrong. The writer was one of the climbers who survived.

I liked the fact that it takes some of the glamour off the "let's climb Everest" motto, and shows the true consequense of the large masses of people out to climb this mountain. Who thought the sanitation would be so bad at the base area?

Another good sailing story. On US SAILING Website.
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O.K Karl,we will expect a book report on all the books that have been listed.

In the last probably month and a half I've read at least 6-7 books, most were 3-400 pages. I've got a stack of 10 books that I'd like to read before the ice retreats back to hell. I've got a full plate already. The last book in que is "ATLAS SHRUGGED", by Aun Rand. I'm a little fuzzy on what its about, its 1070 pages, really small print, and was handed to me by a good friend who told me its right up my alley.

Does anyone on here read anything not related to water in some way? I'm surprised at the number recomendations that are sailing/boat related to others.

This is a sailing forum, so most people assume the purpose of the thread is to recommend books related to sailing. Doesn't mean we don't read all kinds of other books. Doesn't even mean we actually read the sailing books we recommend. As far as I am concerned, in general, sailing is a pretty boring subject to read about.

This isn't the Minnesota Dairy Farmers Co-Op forum? What?! Just kidding Mary, I just figured there would be more in the way of non-sailing related books. A book dedicated to just the sailing aspect would be really boring. Informative perhaps, but not a real page burner.

hey I think Pete is recommending anything by T.S. Eliot

Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer, A good book, but if you enjoyed it you ought to read the book by the Russia guide that Krakauer trashes in the book. His side of the story is rather interesting as well. The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev.

This guy has written a huge number of excellent books on a range of topics. If you like historical fiction he will have you busy for a while. He covers history from the building of Stonehinge, King Authur, English French wars, to modern day sailing. I think he has written about 50 books.

Thanks for reviews, Phil. Ordering Fastnet.

Edit: Just finished The Armada by Garrett Mattingly. Had to force myself to finish it. Bit dry and mostly about politics of England and Spain.

The end was pretty dramatic. Talk about going on the water unprepared! The Spanish started running out of food, water, powder, shot, and all supplies about the time they got halfway up the channel. Then sailed around Ireland to get home and avoid a rematch with the English fleet (who were running out of everything too) and cracked up most of the fleet on the West Coast! Then in port, a sizable number of sailors who survived died of hunger and disease because no one was ready for them to come home! Instead of being a great battle, it was more planning gone wrong.