Good reads for a LONG stint at sea

HeidiHeidi · 24-10-2016 05:50PM #1

I'm off on my biggest (well, longest anyway) sailing adventure to date next week - the ARC+ :eek:

It's a two-legged transatlantic crossing, Gran Canaria to St. Lucia via Cape Verde.

We're going to be at sea for up to a week on the first leg, and then for somewhere between two and three weeks doing the long bit.

I'm trying to find stuff to download to the Kindle to while away those long, long hours, and am looking for suggestions.

I'm inclined towards nautically-themed books, not sure why - just feel like when I'm on a boat I should be reading about boats. But maybe that's the last thing I should be looking for!!!

I'm more fond of non-fiction than fiction (that's too much of a lottery for me, some I love, but some I hate and wish I hadn't wasted the time finding that out!) so any suggestions that might fill my criteria are most welcome.

I've recently read and enjoyed Mine's Bigger (the story of Maltese Falcon), Enda O'Coineen's book about his madcap jaunts across the Atlantic in a RIB (can't remember the title and lent the book and can't remember to whom :mad:), I've just bought Paul Heiney's The Last Man Across the Atlantic to bring with me. So that's the sort of stuff I enjoy.

War and Peace has been suggested, and while I'm slightly tempted..... no, just no!

Any hot tips or suggestions for me??

pedroeibar1 · 24-10-2016 10:57PM

Well, congrats on that! Great voyage.

Forget W&P, it’s a head-wrecker, you need to have a ‘whoswho’ alongside you in hardcopy to flip back-forward. Impossible to remember all those Russian names and genealogies.

Almost all my yottie books are paper, not many make it to eBook and are not to hand – what I’ve on my Kindle that might be of interest is listed below
With one notable exception I agree with you on fiction. That exception is Patrick O’Brian, and the Aubrey-Maturin series. If you have not read him there is a real treat in store for you. 20 books, Napoleonic era, ‘faction’ but very accurate on life in the RN of that time.

Slocum is a must – Sailing alone around the world.

Trawler – Redmond O’Hanlon – a bit daft, but he goes out deep sea trawling and it’s good on marine, oceans, fish & sustainability. In the same mould is ‘Four Fish’ by Paul Greenberg, a better read on what is happening to fish stocks (not heavy, readable and informative without being preachy!)

Highly appropriate given the direction you are heading is ‘1493 – Uncovering the New World’ by Charles Mann is a fantastic read, shows the effect the Colombus discovery had on the world.

‘The Great Sea’ by David Abulafia is a history of the Med and the peoples that line its shores – more historical than marine, but as you have sailed down there you will recognise the places and it will bring new meaning. (It’s heavy going at times, one to dip into a chapter at a time.)

‘Three Ways to capsize a boat’ by Chris Stewart is liked by some, but I found it trite/daft/lightweight. Maybe passable after a few Cubalibres!

If you feel like sitting under a tree for a while you could try –
A walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Umberto Eco’s ‘The Name of the Rose’ is not marine, but it is long and a good read.
Lucky you!

Nekarsulm · 24-10-2016 11:01PM

The riddle of the sands, by Erskine Childers. To the Baltic with Bob, by Griff Rhys Jones.
Edit to add. Bring back my Stringbag, by John Kilbracken. The author, a Leitrim man, recounts his war years flying a Fairy Swordfish biplane off aircraft carriers in the Med.

Flipperdipper · 25-10-2016 12:37AM

Everything by Tristan Jones. The Bounty trilogy, the Brendan voyage. Enjoy the trip.

Steve · 25-10-2016 12:41AM

You know the ARC is a race right?

Reading time??..pfft.. you should be sailing eating or sleeping!!

:D

Best of luck HH, enjoy it, I'm jealous!!

fenris · 25-10-2016 08:07AM

Don't forget the likes of Harry Potter for when you just want to get lost in some easy reading. It is good to have something lightweight but long.
You might want to load up on a couple of audio books or podcasts for when you just want the illusion of personal space :-)

my3cents · 25-10-2016 08:50AM

I don't use the kindle much as I listen to audio tapes a lot of the time so I lent out the kindle to someone who had never read any Terry Pratchett. I put all of his books on it and the first ten lasted an avid reader about a week so 40 would should last at least a month.

Then again you either need to like Terry Pratchett or have never read any of his stuff but be sure you will like it.

Tabnabs · 25-10-2016 09:20AM

The Long Way by Bernard Moitessier, is a must for long distance sailing. He would have won the first Golden Globe Race, a solo, non-stop circumnavigation only he decided it wasn't worth the publicity and turned the boat around and kept sailing. Then read Robin Knox Johnston's A World of My Own, the guy who did win the race and got the glory but was a very different character to Moitessier.

Agree on anything by Tristan Jones, especially Ice! and The Incredible Voyage.

HeidiHeidi · 25-10-2016 12:54PM

Thanks everyone for the replies

Loads of great suggestions!

I've read Three Ways to Capsize a Boat - and while it had me in hysterical tears at some bits, I'd had enough by the end!

I've also read most of what Bill Bryson has written, some of them many times over - but some are coming with me again as I NEVER tire of reading him!

Also read The Riddle of the Sands a couple of times - an odder book I'd find it hard to think of, but it was great!

Griff Rhys Jones - hmmmm, interesting! Will have to check that one out!

I read loads of Terry Pratchett back in my late schooldays, and LOVED him. Not sure I'd be quite such a fan now though....

Moitessier and Knox Johnson are good calls - although I've a feeling I may have read them before, possibly (I've the memory of a goldfish!) but if I have I've forgotten them so no harm going again! I've read a few other books about that race - Voyage for Madmen and the Donald Crowhurst story - it's a never-ending source of good reads!

Audio books are a very good shout as well, although never having read/heard one in my life I'd need to figure that out...... all I'm bringing is my phone, can I load some up onto that? How big are they memory-wise?

And lastly, Steve - it's a RALLY, not a race :pac: Although given half the crew are avid racers, I'd imagine we won't be dawdling around the place!!

Thanks again for all the suggestions - loadsa good ideas to keep me going

spaceHopper · 25-10-2016 12:57PM

You should read sailing disaster books (aloud to the crew in bad weather)

Fastnet, Force 10: The Deadliest Storm in the History of Modern Sailing
Left for Dead: Surviving the Deadliest Storm in Modern Sailing History
Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney-Hobart
look on line for Race for the fastnet race inquiry report in pdf

While your at it lash on a couple of good cookbooks so you can dream about food you don't have the ingredients for

my3cents · 25-10-2016 12:59PM

Audio books vary smallest are around 120MB but can be as big as a 1GB. I put mine on a micro SD card and use that in my phone or MP3 player.

Edit> If you download any make sure you don't get the free ones that are read by a computer

HeidiHeidi · 25-10-2016 01:04PM

spaceHopper wrote: »

You should read sailing disaster books (aloud to the crew in bad weather)

Fastnet, Force 10: The Deadliest Storm in the History of Modern Sailing
Left for Dead: Surviving the Deadliest Storm in Modern Sailing History
Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney-Hobart
look on line for Race for the fastnet race inquiry report in pdf

While your at it lash on a couple of good cookbooks so you can dream about food you don't have the ingredients for

Well aren't you quite the little ray of sunshine!!!

You'd get along well with a pal of mine whose idea of a well-wishing message was "check the keel before you go" :eek:

I've read the two Fastnet books already, and I think I can probably live without fresh images of S-H carnage in my mind as a storm rolls over us.....

But thanks anyhow!!

Special Circumstances · 25-10-2016 01:07PM

Life of pi?

HeidiHeidi · 25-10-2016 01:12PM

Special Circumstances wrote: »

Life of pi?

Read it fairly recently - and saw the film

Brilliant read, although I almost gave up halfway through - talk about a book of two halves!

neris · 25-10-2016 02:32PM

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

You'd get along well with a pal of mine whose idea of a well-wishing message was "check the keel before you go"

Bet the lads on that 40.7 who doing a west to eat crossing wished they'd checked the keel bolts

HeidiHeidi · 25-10-2016 02:33PM

neris wrote: »

Bet the lads on that 40.7 who doing a west to eat crossing wished they'd checked the keel bolts

I'm assuming that's what he was referring to.

05eaftqbrs9jlh · 25-10-2016 02:36PM

Jonathan Livington Seagull is very short but it's a gorgeous book.

WildWater · 25-10-2016 08:53PM

Some great suggestions already to which I will add Ken Folletts Century Trilogy (Fall of Giants is the first). I know you prefer non-fiction but if you like history you may very well love these. His characters are fictional but their lives play out through real history. Very well written and if you download all three you'll certainly have many, many long hours of reading ahead of you.

welder · 25-10-2016 08:59PM

Don't know if you would get it on the Kindle but 'Sailing in grandfathers wake' by Ian Tew is a good read. Have a great,safe trip and I hope you write it up for us !

Pete67 · 30-10-2016 09:06PM

I enjoyed 'Sailing for Home - A voyage from Antigua to Kinsale' by Theo Dorgan. Beautifully written and should be of interest to both sailors and non-sailors.

nokiatom · 31-10-2016 11:36AM

A few years back I was doing a sailing trip from Capetown to Mallorca. I was never a good reader but this was a fairly long journey so one day I checked out some books on board. There was a lot of sailing and marine based books there but I wanted something different. I picked up a book called: I Have Life: Raped, Stabbed & Left for Dead. It was an incredible read and it took place near Capetown where I had just left. Another book was published again about her a few years later called: I Have Life : Alisons Journey. I haven't read that.

Good reads for a LONG stint at sea

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