Book Review

A Personal Odyssey By Tristan Jones Published by Sheridan House, an imprint of Globe Pequot 391 pages paperback Our friends at Sheridan House in Essex, CT have re-released one of our favorite books by long distance sailor and writer Tristan Jones for their Maritime Classics series. Originally published in 1977, The Incredible Voyage finds the author retracing the voyages of discovery made by 16th century European explorers. Determined to set “the vertical sailing record of the world”…

By Thomas E. Crocker Published by McBooks Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot 429 pages $29.95 The years known as the Federal Period (1783-1822) were a time of unprecedented expansion for the fledgling United States of America, on both the largely unexplored continent and the Atlantic Ocean. As the closest American port to Europe, Portland, Maine prospered greatly from sea trade. Adam Hale, an industrious and self-made captain, had been a blockade runner during the Revolutionary War….

Privateering in the American Revolution By Eric Jay Dolin Published by Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company The United States Navy was founded during the Revolutionary War, but the fledgling nation might not have emerged victorious – and independent – were it not for a ragtag fleet of privately owned vessels. The Continental navy, at that time comprising no more than about sixty ships, was engaged in combat with the most formidable naval…

A novel by David Kushner Published by KDP Direct Publishing 511 pages paperback Those who make a living smuggling illegal commodities are a resourceful lot, their efforts at avoiding detection perhaps most famously portrayed in The French Connection with its Lincoln Continental and its heroin-packed rocker panels. David Kushner’s latest book takes that theme to a new level by loading six kilograms of Soviet weapons-grade plutonium (enough to build a nuclear device capable of massive destruction) into…

Editor’s note: We reviewed Greg Gilmartin’s third novel in our January/February edition (windcheckmagazine.com/article/cant-sail-in-jail/), and liked it so much that we asked the author to share a piece with WindCheck readers. This passage is from Chapter 18 – Ishkoodah. It was always about the cash with Dr. Z. He grew up with enough of it to want more. He understood how it opened doors and brought things into his life. How it made life more enjoyable, created a…

By Marguerite Welch Published by Seaworthy Publications, Inc.   320 pages   paperback On October 22, 1998, Marguerite & Michael Welch and their black Labrador Jack departed their hometown of Annapolis, MD aboard their 38-foot Shannon Cutter Ithaca, embarking on what they anticipated to be a three-year voyage at the most. Only vaguely thinking about the possibility of sailing the world at the time, they would eventually complete a 43,822-nautical mile circumnavigation during which they visited fifty-one countries by…

Written and published by Greg Gilmartin 302 pages $20 “Every legend begins with a little lie, but it needs some truth if it’s gonna fly.” The characters and incidents in Greg Gilmartin’s third novel, Can’t Sail In Jail! are fictional, although readers familiar with the history of the Mystic River Mudhead Sailing Association may discover some remarkably similar people and events. In an article he wrote for WindCheck on the 40th anniversary of the club’s founding (windcheckmagazine.com/article/the_mudheads_turn_40/), Greg…

A novel by Roger Vaughan Published by Choptank Word Bank 249 pages $17.95 If you read the excerpt from Fastnet; One Man’s Voyage in our October edition (windcheckmagazine.com/article/an-excerpt-from-fastnet-one-mans-voyage/), a compelling firsthand account of the ill-fated 1979 Fastnet Race aboard Jim Kilroy’s 79-foot maxi Kialoa, you know that author, yachting historian and longtime WindCheck contributor Roger Vaughan is a superb storyteller. His first novel Coming About is a first-rate thriller. The striking cover photo by Carlo Borlenghi sets…

Steve & Doris Colgate And Offshore Sailing School By Herb McCormick Published by Seapoint Books + Media LLC 288 pages People have been teaching other how to use a sail to move a boat across a body of water for millennia, but as far as we’re concerned Doris and Steve Colgate invented the sailing school. With more than 150,000 enthusiastic graduates of Offshore Sailing School, this dynamic duo has taught more how to sail and to embrace…

By Paul Heiney Published by Adlard Coles, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Comical in appearance with black and white plumage and colorful parrot-like beaks, puffins are known to many as “the jokers of the sea.” Although they spend most of their lives at sea, Atlantic puffins have roosted in large numbers on or near Iceland for millenia. The population of these loveable little auklets is declining alarmingly, says author Paul Heiney, who sailed his 38-foot cutter…