10 must have sailing books - Part 2 by Eglėpedia .

Oh, you are back! It means that you have liked 10 must have sailing books - Part 1. Here is the continuation of part one. Hope you will find it as interesting as the first one!





RYA Go Sailing: A Practical Guide for Young People (Royal Yachting Association) by Claudia Myatt, 84 pages





Offspring



This book is great if you plan to teach your toddlers some sailing essentials while you are still ashore (otherwise they will probably learn to sail before they start talking). This generously illustrated book covers all basics, is not too complicated, and is written in a fun and friendly tone. A secret tip: If you are a beginner yourself, this book might serve you as a reminder of the main stuff on that very last night before your first sailing exam.



The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford W. Ashley, 690 pages





Gordian Knot



Let's go straight to the point with this one. You don't need this book. Honestly. Especially if you are on a beginner level. This is the book for knot tying professionals. This book is not practical for boat library because it is too big for spices shelf. There are probably 50 more useful and more practical books out there about knots and besides that, there is the very well-known fact, that you only really need to know some 3 to 8 knots, and you are good to go sailing. I'm not saying you shouldn't know more, I'm only saying that you can survive with 5 basic knots without any problem. Ok, but what if you want to learn more, and if you have 55-foot sailboat so you can store all the books you don't really need? Well, then you definitely “need” this one! Let's talk numbers. This amazing book was first published in 1944 and it was reprinted many times since then. On 620 pages, there are 4000 knots and 7000 outstanding illustrations. All the varieties of shipboard knots as well as knots used by butchers, surgeons, cowboys, knitters, poachers, cobblers, fisherman, steeplejacks, climbers, and even enthusiastic lovers. This book has all the possible knots know to modern men. For every single use or situation. Ok, maybe it's not suitable for 50 Shades of Grey fans, because it’s a little bit too complicated to understand, but you can find something more advanced in it if you are interested, in more “out-of-the-box” style, like Kinbaku or Shibari, if that rocks your boat. But who knows, maybe it can even help you with the famous Gordian Knot one day? You never know. You can check it yourself here.





Sailboat Refinishing (International Marine Sailboat Library) by Don Casey, 144 pages





Sisyphus work



Finally, you’ve managed to sell your house, and all the properties you owned. You took every saved cent from the savings account to buy yourself a dreamboat you fell in love at the first sight (email) your boat broker sent to you. All is rosy! Life is beautiful! But suddenly you figure out that you don't have enough money to get the boat on the dry and pay for some decent boat surveyor. So you take a small fast loan from the local banksters just so you can pay for additional after costs of buying your dream. But dreams are worth every cent spent. So after surveyor found few soft spots on the deck beneath that beautiful teak, which already saw her best days way before Y2K, and few suspicious through holes below the waterline which are leading nowhere, your second offer went through. You are over the moon! Sailing test run went great, mostly on diesel because there was no wind, but what the hell, you have a boat! Life is great until honeymoon phase is over, and you see your boat in the boatyard after the first rain... overnight, your bilge pump was trying to get rid of all the rain which your love boat leaked in, but only thing pump dried are your old batteries. And backup ones too. This is the first time for reality check. And maybe for considering ordering this book which can help you with almost all of your problems considering the boat, except for the bank account. But hey, nothing can stop you from your dream! You will order this book, you will refurbish and refit your boat. Maybe in the process, you will start YouTube How-to channel, and earn some extra cash to pay the banksters, but afterward, you will be done and free. So now you can start all over again, starting from scraping the bottom, then some new interior refit, new washing machine, and maybe it's a good time for changing the mainsail. Don't worry, this book will definitely help you. It's definitely one of the best in the category. If only poor Sisyphus had it. It would probably have helped him too with his work. Over and over again...





Sailing For Dummies by J.J. Isler & Peter Isler, 432 pages





Everyone needs a fresh start



To be honest, this book is one of my favorites when it comes to sailing and how-to! Since a young age, I had this weird dream about sailing around the world one day, but I didn't have a clue about sailing (and I still don't). Years passed, few missed chances along the way but suddenly, I got amazing opportunity to chase my big dream, sail around the world on my own. Yep, alone. Thing is, I still didn't have a single clue how to sail. My plan was simple. Work hard, buy some sailing boat, drop the lines, and sail away leaving everything behind. “I will learn how to sail as I go”, - was the plan. Smart, right? Yeah, but I really don't care what others think. My life philosophy (my dear friend taught me that) is, we will cross that bridge when we come to it. Yep, it's a cliché, I can't help it, but I like it, in some very strange way... Sooo, my only planning ahead, considering this small issue of me not knowing how to sail, was to buy this book and learn it on the fly. In my head, that was a pretty much normal stream of thoughts and I didn't see anything wrong with that plan, but I'm not much of the planner anyway. That became obvious when I recently met my soulmate, I will just say she wasn't too much excited about my brilliant plan as I was. And she is an avid and strict planner, let me tell you! So, as was expected, “together” we made completely new plans for our future life. She, she will be the Captain of our boat! That's the plan! Let me be clear, I want her to be my Captain, I insist on it actually, because I think there are not enough women sea Captains in this men's world. I have all the confidence in my future Captain because she will pass all the exams with a perfect score and I think she is smarter and more capable than most, so-called Captains, I've met during my all sailing trips! And me, well, I will buy myself this book as I planned for a long time, to read it when I will be on night watch scheduled by my personal Capitonė. Maybe I will even learn something about sailing. No, not maybe, I definitely will, because this is a great book after all.





World Cruising Routes: 1000 Routes from the South Seas to the Arctic: Companion to World Cruising Handbook by Jimmy Cornell, 640 pages





Hitchhiker's guide through worlds seas and oceans



When you finally read and re-read all the books mentioned here on this list, when you learn how to buy a sailboat, how to refurbish sailboat, how to refit sailboat, how to do sailboat maintenance, how to fix sailboat diesel engine, how to catch edible fish on the open ocean, how to cook the fish on the open ocean, how to get your kids in to sailing before they drive you insane, how to tie some awkward Japanese knots, learn how to sail the sailboat...you are finally ready for this next book. It is another book of “sacred” texts, another must-have piece of established religious bestsellers for long-distance cruisers. It contains almost 1000 sailing routes covering all the oceans, from the Arctic through tropical South Seas to the Antarctic. It contains information on the winds, currents, regional and seasonal weather and many other suggestions about certain routes. The 6th edition of the book even assess the effects of global warming on different routes and provides over 6000 waypoints for skipper’s assistance, because of that climate effects, winds and currents are constantly changing (but not according to widespread US administration around the world). This is the most important reason (climate change, not the US government) you should always buy the most recent edition of this essential book. This is the sixth one. So it must be good. Bad books don't get 6 chances. Or at least I hope they don't. There is probably no more important book for long-distance cruisers than this one. Someone can question the author and what he does, but we can’t care less, this book is an absolute must-have.







ADDENDUM

Brave or stupid? Is there a difference?

This is a bonus book for you, our fellow readers. I didn't want to put it in the reviews with other books, namely for the personal reasons and the fact that this book is not an essential read for cruisers nor for sailing. This is not an inspirational or self-help book either. But if you want to have a good laugh, or if you want to read about 3 years of sailing adventures around the world by two middle-aged (cheers to Yanne and Calle) landlubber seasick men, without money or any sailing experience at all - this is definitely a book for you! I will not go into the details, because like I said, this book is very personal to me, but what I will tell you is: if you believe in second chances, realization of dreams, if you believe in the power of an old fashioned handshake between two people, if you believe in real friendships (not virtual ones), then you should definitely look for this book. It has changed my life, maybe it will change yours too.







So, now you are finally ready to drop the lines and chase the adventure, chase the dreams. I hope this not-so-serious blog post will help someone in search of sailing book essentials at least a little. If it did, you welcome! If not, I’m sorry. If you have missed Part 1, you can find it here.





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We wish all of you calm seas and full sails!









By Tamed Winds

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