By Rod Scher
Published by Sheridan House, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press
312 pages hardback $29.95
Think “retired geography professor” and you might picture someone quiet pursuits in a comfortable, book-lined study, mentoring former students or perhaps presenting an occasional lecture. Marvin Creamer, however, was not the retiring type. At sixty-six years of age, Creamer was determined to do something that had not been done for a thousand years – if indeed anyone had ever done it.
Obsessed with proving a point, Cream wanted to show the world that ancient mariners could have sailed across oceans – and possibly even around the world – using only their brains, their experience, their senses, and their courage. Although Creamer had crossed ocean before, his latest quest was to circumnavigate the globe without the use of any instruments.
Aboard a 35-foot steel cutter-rigged sloop designed by Ted Brewer, Creamer and a crew of two set out into the Atlantic in the early 1980s without a chart plotter, GPS or radar…nor sextant, compass, or even a stopwatch. Sailing around Cape Horn, across the Tasman Sea and into an active war zone, Creamer would not be deterred by 40-foot waves or fractious crewmembers. A captivating chronicle of an amazing journey, Sailing By Starlight is recommended for sailors and history buffs alike.
An experienced writer and editor with multiple books and dozens of magazine articles to his credit, Rod Scher is the former editor of Smart Computing Magazine. He’s also the author of Leveling the Playing Field: The Democratization of Technology and the editor/annotator of recent editions of Joshua Slocum’s nautical memoir, Sailing Alone Around the World, and Richard Henry Dana’s classicTwo Years Before the Mast, all from Sheridan House Publishers. He lives in Depoe Bay, Oregon. ■
