Top 10 Most Entertaining and Useful Sailing Books
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These are 10 of my all-time favorite sailing books, including a combination of reference guides, sailing adventure books, and classics.
By Michelle Segrest, Navigate Sailing — How to Get Your Sea Legs
I’m happy to share with you some of my all-time favorite sailing books. I am an avid reader and can highly recommend each of these books if you love sailing, boating, high-seas adventure, unique travel destinations, or just a good entertaining read on a lazy day. Some of these are historical, some are fiction, some nonfiction, and some are reference guides. They are presented here in no particular order.
Please leave a comment and recommend your favorite sailing- or travel-related books! If you read some of these, please let me know what you thought about them.
1. As Long as It’s Fun: The Epic Voyages and Extraordinary Times of Lin and Larry Pardey
By Herb McCormick
PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION: To anyone interested in small-boat cruising and voyaging, the names Lin and Larry Pardey need no introduction. As world-girdling sailors who roamed the planet on a pair of small, engineless boats that they built themselves, the Pardeys established their hard-earned reputations by eloquently (and sometimes controversially) telling their stories through a series of best-selling books and manuals, and countless seminars and boat shows. They have been called the first couple of cruising and have remained true to their mantra: Go simple, go small, go now. And after 200,000 miles of cruising under sail, they’ve demonstrated that the dream of voyaging over the horizon is not only attainable, it s affordable.
MY THOUGHTS: I read this book six years ago and re-read it while sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in February 2019. For me, it was the inspiration for my dream of sailing the world and living on a sailboat. Lin Pardey is my sailing idol. The Pardeys are expert sailors and traveled the world in sailboats much smaller and with fewer amenities than the 43-foot ketch I sailed. Whenever things would get tough on board or there was a challenge, I always asked myself, “What would Lin Pardey do?” This is their story and most definitely worth the read if you like high-seas adventure, bucket-list travel journeys, and a great love story!
2. Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories
By Simon Winchester
PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION: Blending history and anecdote, geography and reminiscence, science and exposition, New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester tells the breathtaking saga of the Atlantic Ocean. A gifted storyteller and consummate historian, Winchester sets the great blue sea's epic narrative against the backdrop of mankind's intellectual evolution, telling not only the story of an ocean, but the story of civilization.
MY THOUGHTS: I was captivated by this book! Ok, I read it while actually sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in February 2019, so this naturally gave it extra meaning for me. But even if I hadn’t learned all about the Atlantic Ocean while sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, I know that I still would have loved all the history and stories of the sea that are included in this epic book that is something of a written documentary. The writing is well-researched and elegant. It was enjoyable for me from beginning to end.
3. Adrift: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea
By Tami Oldham Ashcraft
PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION: Young and in love, their lives ahead of them, Tami Oldham and her fiancé Richard Sharp set sail from Tahiti under brilliant blue skies, with Tami’s hometown of San Diego as their ultimate destination. But the two free spirits and avid sailors couldn’t anticipate that less than two weeks into their voyage, they would sail directly into one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history. They found themselves battling pounding rain, waves the size of skyscrapers, and 140 knot winds. Richard tethered himself to the boat and sent Tami below to safety, and then all went eerily quiet. Hours later, Tami awakened to find the boat in ruins, and Richard nowhere in sight.
Adrift is the story of Tami’s miraculous forty-one-day journey to safety on a ravaged boat with no motor and no masts, and with little hope for rescue. It’s a tale of love and survival on the high seas-- an unforgettable story about resilience of the human spirit, and the transcendent power of love.
MY THOUGHTS: So much better than the movie, Tami’s account of her 41 days at sea is simply unbelievable. The Hollywood version doesn’t give her credit for her experience and expertise or for her creativity and sailing ingenuity while in survival mode. Everyone told me not to watch the movie or to read the book, but I’ve done both and consider the book an actual guide and useful tool as well as a very entertaining and gripping read.
4. Fifty Places to Sail Before You Die: Sailing Experts Share the World’s Greatest Destinations
By Chris Santella
PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION: Mankind has plied the waves of the ocean since the dawn of recorded time, seeking sustenance, riches and adventure. "Fifty Places To Sail Before You Die" maps out some of the world's great sailing venues, as shared by both champion racers and celebrated adventurers. Venues range from clubby New England ports like Newport to the hair-raising passage around Cape Horn to idyllic island retreats like Mopelia. In addition to colourful descriptions of the sailing spots and anecdotes from some of the world's greatest sailors, "Fifty Places To Sail Before You Die" will include brilliant photographs and enough information to help would-be sailors chart their own adventure in these areas.
MY THOUGHTS: If you want the ultimate sailing destination bucket list, including spectacular photos, history and travel tips, this is a great book to own and look through at your leisure. When I’m needing inspiration, I simply open to a random chapter and start dreaming. Each chapter offers a story of its own, so it’s a book you don’t have to read from cover to cover to enjoy. You can enjoy it in digestible chunks.
5. The Sailing Bible: The Complete Guide for All Sailors, from Novice to Expert
By Jeremy Evans, Pat Manley, and Barrie Smith
PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION: The Sailing Bible is a comprehensive handbook for all sailors, whatever their experience. It takes novice sailors from learning the anatomy of their boat to handling emergencies while experienced sailors get sound advice and expert tips that will improve their skills, safety and enjoyment on the water.
Jam-packed with vital data, step-by-step instructions, explanatory diagrams and lively action photos, The Sailing Bible is thorough, user-friendly and appropriate for all sailboats. Organized progressively from learning to sail to navigation and boat maintenance, the authors cover everything sailors must know to get the most out of the sport.
MY THOUGHTS: This is my go-to guide when I want a quick how-to sailing lesson in one or two pages. Complex maneuvers and the basics of sailing are all presented in an extremely elementary way that a novice can understand, and a seasoned sailor can find helpful. I find helpful tips in this book when sailing a 43-foot ketch or my small one-sail wooden day sailer.
6. The Old Man and the Sea
By Ernest Hemingway
PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION: The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal -- a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.
Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.
MY THOUGHTS: No lie, I have read this book cover-to-cover at least 10 times. The first time was in my teens when I was beginning to dream of being a writer. In fact, this book was one of my greatest early inspirations along with To Kill a Mockingbird. My most recent reading of The Old Man and the Sea was while crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a 43-foot sailboat in February 2019. Every time I read it I remember why I love it so much! I always enjoy and appreciate the beautiful prose and Hemingway’s simple and compelling storytelling art. It’s a quick read, easily finished in one sitting. I promise it will spark your imagination, and you will feel that you are on that boat with the salty old fisherman trying to land the catch of a lifetime.
7. Two Years Before the Mast
By Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION: Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834 and published in 1840.
While at Harvard College, Dana had an attack of the measles which affected his vision. Thinking it might help his sight, Dana, rather than going on a Grand Tour as most of his fellow classmates traditionally did (and unable to afford it anyway) and being something of a non-conformist, left Harvard to enlist as a common sailor on a voyage around Cape Horn on the brig Pilgrim. He returned to Massachusetts two years later aboard the Alert (which left California sooner than the Pilgrim).
He kept a diary throughout the voyage, and, after returning, he wrote the recognized American classic, Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1840, the same year of his admission to the bar.
MY THOUGHTS: Several of my sailor friends recommended this book to me, so I read it while sailing an 11-day passage from the Canary Islands to Cape Verde, Africa. The narrative is masterful. It colorfully and in great detail depicts Dana’s life aboard two merchant sailing vessels in the early 19th century. He documents the good, the bad, and the ugly…which was my goal while writing my sailing adventure blog How to Get Your Sea Legs about my year at sea. I’m not attempting to compare my work to Dana’s by any stretch, but we did have the same intention—to show what it’s like to live and sail on a non-luxury sailboat.
8. A Voyage for Madmen
By Peter Nichols
PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION: In 1968, nine sailors set off on the most daring race ever held: to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe nonstop. It was a feat that had never been accomplished and one that would forever change the face of sailing. Ten months later, only one of the nine men would cross the finish line and earn fame, wealth, and glory. For the others, the reward was madness, failure, and death.
In this extraordinary book, Peter Nichols chronicles a contest of the individual against the sea, waged at a time before cell phones, satellite dishes, and electronic positioning systems. A Voyage for Madmen is a tale of sailors driven by their own dreams and demons, of horrific storms in the Southern Ocean, and of those riveting moments when a split-second decision means the difference between life and death.
MY THOUGHTS: I couldn’t put this book down while sailing from Cayenne to Kourou, French Guiana on the northern South American coast in June 2019. Recommended by some sailor friends, I was riveted by this compelling true story of a grueling race to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe nonstop. As a sailor, I can’t even imagine a challenge like this. But this book puts you there and shows the tremendous skill and stamina of these nine sailors. Spoiler alert: they didn’t all make it. Even if you are not a sailor, you will find great inspiration from this amazing book.
9. Bull Canyon: A Boatbuilding, a Writer and Other Wildlife
By Lin Pardey
PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION: Lin Pardey and her husband Larry are internationally famous for their sailing adventures. But in 1980 -- fresh from an eleven years-long sailing journey, where they forged the early years of their marriage on high seas and in exotic locales -- they came to California looking for a good spot to build a boat, test Lin s skills as a writer and taste the apparent security life ashore could offer. Nestled in a rocky outcropping of winding, sparsely populated dirt roads, 60 miles from the sea and 50 miles from Los Angeles, Bull Canyon would seem an unlikely place for boat-building.
But when Lin and Larry set eyes on the abandoned stone cottage at the top of a rutted, dusty lane, it was love at first sight. The house was certainly a fixer-upper, but there was plenty of room to build a boat, not to mention peace, quiet, and an abundance of natural beauty. They knew they'd come home.
Bull Canyon would bring them joy, victories and failures but also packrats in the pantries, flooding rains that would make Noah himself cower, the occasional cougar, and an oddball collection of neighbors as ready to assist these hapless appearing newcomers as they were to gossip or occasionally cause trouble. It would be a life lived close to the land, coaxing vegetables out of acrid soil, living side-by-side with wildlife of all types, navigating dangerous roads to simply get to the nearest grocery store, no piped in water, no electricity, no phones not even a proper address to receive mail. Their marriage would be tested, too, working side-by-side, 24/7. Life in the canyon would prove daunting, gritty, and dangerous, and a tougher bargain in the end than what they'd signed up for. But as tough as life could be there, Bull Canyon was, indeed, the place where dreams could come true.
MY THOUGHTS: Lin Pardey is perhaps my favorite writer of all time. I have read and can highly recommend most of her books, including but not limited to:
Those are just a few of her books I’ve read cover to cover, but Bull Canyon is my favorite. I read it while sailing across the Atlantic in February 2019 and will likely read it again in the near future. Lin is an extraordinary storyteller and she’s one of the world’s best sailors. Her writing is clear, concise, and void of too much flowery prose that can often feel forced and strained when people “try” to write. She gets to the point and does it eloquently and with just enough color to make you feel like you are right there with her. I could probably make a Top 10 list that would include at least 8 or 9 of her books. I think I’ve read them all! But this one is my favorite of hers so it makes this list.
10. Living Life Sideways: The Complete Series
By Michelle Segrest
PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION: If you thought sailing the world is an endless holiday of bikinis and martinis, get ready for a bucket-list adventure of a lifetime!
These gripping true stories open a window into the live-aboard lifestyle and complex challenges of blue water sailing—where simple decisions have real-life consequences and where the most provocative obstacles live inside a sailor's soul.
If you are intrigued by an escape from the ordinary, come aboard as a sailor and two seadogs discover exactly what it’s like to live life sideways.
Desperate and determined to rekindle a once dynamic and romantic spark, a sailor (and her two beagles) depart on a bucket-list adventure of a lifetime—a worldwide sailing journey that will take them from north Germany to south Alabama. In Book 1 of Living Life Sideways, she must face the obstacles of sailing a 43-foot steel ketch through some of the world’s most challenging bodies of water—including the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Bay of Biscay, and an unbelievable Atlantic Ocean crossing.
The epic seasickness and struggles with learning to how to live life sideways seem insurmountable until she is faced with the real battle that lies deep within a sailor’s soul. Now, she must find a way to navigate the reality of her greatest fears and her worst nightmares.
MY THOUGHTS: Ok, I can’t have a Top 10 Best Sailing Books list without recommending my own book! Rather than giving my own views, I will instead share with you some of the five-star reviews!
“A very impressive testimony of grit, determination, and a journey toward self-valuation."
“This is a GREAT read! Michelle will transport you from your couch to the high seas. You will be hugging a beagle, praying for a seasickness remedy and looking forward to the next port.”
“Michelle is such a gifted writer, but it takes more than writing skills, it takes courage to write a story like this. I couldn’t put it down. It’s a dramatic real-life story that you can’t stop reading. 10/10 recommend.”
“I love the experiences in all the places she stopped! Exciting and easy to feel and picture, and the personal struggle was one I could relate to so much. I think there is something for everyone in these stories.”
"A gripping case study in narcissistic abuse recovery.""I've felt every emotion while reading this book and gasped many times.”
"A really good read, and a brutally honest one."
BONUS: Other sailing books by Michelle Segrest
Please let me know what sailing books or non-sailing books you recommend.
These are a few more of my favorites that didn’t make my Top 10 Best Sailing Books list, but I would highly recommend!!!
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