Great Reads to Get Through the Doldrums
There is a bug in every sailor to fight new developments in technology. Seamanship is such an old tradition that it makes sense to a degree - there are many times that the development of the new just for the sake of development falls flat in it’s face in abject failure, but it is also important to recognize new strategies for their worth when the time comes - and do they ever, at what seems to be an unimaginable rate of new technology that is not only rapidly changing our interactions, but also rapidly developing itself. For simple sailors such as ourselves, it can feel as though it is a wave that is simply passing under us, beyond our control.
One way we like to escape these tempestuous developments is to break away from the screen and commune with a good book. The Captain has wanted to share a reading list with you all for some time, and now that spring is approaching he thought it high time to whet your sailing whistles with a taste of his 3 favorite books to read while at sea (ok, 4…).
Website link to the Thor Heyderahl Musuem: https://www.kon-tiki.no/expeditions/tigris-expedition/
Thor Heyerdahl - “Back to Nature/ Fati-Hiva, (1974)” “the Tigris Expedition (1979)”
For the addicted traveler, there is almost no modern equal to that of Cultural Anthropologist, ancient vessel expert/ designer/ builder, and global expedition leader Thor Heyerdahl. Many know his most famous work, “Kon-Tiki,” memorialized in both his book, original documentary and subsequent Hollywood film. A massive rebellious intellect and Oxford Graduate, Thor Heyerdahl spent nearly his entire life proving the importance of sail to the development of modern society not simply through archeological digs and theories, but by constructing ancient vessels described in texts and proving possible discovery and trade routes around the world. These two books that examplify both the beginning and end of his “field-work,” messing about on boats of dubious construction and achieving goals that would curdle the blood of even the worlds most adventurous sailors. The stories take you right along with him and are completely addictive - so set aside some time, and of course some space in your permanent ships’ library. You’ll want to keep them around for a spell.
Richard Henry Dana II - “2 Years before the Mast” (1840)
Something of a “bible” for tall-ship enthusiasts, this is the true story of a young man intended to graduate Harvard, but in poor health, who decides to take on a 2 year adventure as crew aboard a Merchant ship bound for California via Cape Horn. It’s a beautifully written masterpiece, rife with locations and sailing terms that will keep your google search bar full for hours and hours. Even though written in an older style, it is quite easy to follow, picturesque and exciting as you follow Mr. Dana from Boston around the most treacherous route of the time, Cape Horn, then up and down the coast of a much older and unpopulated California Coast in search of cow hides and back again. The experiences of Santa Barbara, San Fransisco and Los Angeles are so stark in their differences of todays’ major cities to startle the senses.
Erskine Childers - “Riddle of the Sands”
This one I discovered by happenstance years ago when a friend gave me a well-used copy in the Mediterranean while delivering a Cigal 16 from Inverness, Scotland into the Med. It was the perfect trip for this story, an early espionage tale set just after the turn of the 20th century in the Baltic and North Seas, specifically focused on the German coast and Frisian islands as a possible staging ground for A future German invasion of the UK. The plot discovery, made by English Yachtsmen “Davies” and “Carruthers” while on a sailing holiday is full of twists and turns, tides, canals and sluices only accessible by a small centerboard sloop regularly finding itself on the ground at low water. The two end up in the position of unconsripted yet willing spies, deciphering a web of suspicious clues and characters around the islands of Norderny, Juist and Memert in the Frisian chain on the North Sea, a possible jumping off point for the German Navy with the plans in their infancy. They take it upon themselves to unravel the details and report back to the Admirality and stave off the scheme. Simply a must have for those of us who love nothing more than to mess about on boats…
In the age of burying our faces in our phones, of constant gratuitous imagery at every turn, I often find that taking the time to sit and reading allows one’s mind to breathe and exercise it’s own rights to create its own imagery. If we stop the influx of internet junkery for a moment, we quickly find what Artificial Intelligence is being modeled after, a tool being used less and less that sits just atop our shoulders. Let these volumes take you out to sea, far away from your current station and tech, raising a sail or two and following the wind and waves along the way.
Happy Spring! Enjoy these reads and we look forward to seeing you on the water real soon!
Cpt Jarad and Christel Astin