Fall 2024 “The Wide Wide Sea” by Hampton Sides. Doubleday. 2024; 408 pps. $20.49. Reviewed by Robert Beringer As I began reading Hampton Sides’ latest offering, “The Wide Wide Sea,” which vividly captures the third voyage of Captain James Cook, I couldn’t help but admire the man who achieved soRead More
June 2024 “The Worst Journey in the Midlands” by Sam Llewellyn. Macmillan Publishers. 1994. 192 pps. $8.36. Reviewed by Randy Randall I recently read “The Worst Journey in the Midlands” by Sam Llewellyn on the recommendation of Nim Marsh, the former editor of Points East and someone I consider aRead More
June 2024 “Born to Build: Cape Dory . . . A Standard of Value” by Andrew C. Vavolotis and James L. Nelson. ACV Boatworks, LLC, Publisher. 217 pps. $44.95. Review by Bob Muggleston Sailors in New England are well familiar with the many Cape Dory offerings that still, some 30Read More
“Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World” by Eric Jay Dolin. Liveright Publishing Corporation. 2024. 314 pp. $24.25. Reviewed by Bob Muggleston The Falkland Islands, for those of us of a certain age, are generally the place of an undeclared war that tookRead More
Winter 2024 Reviews by Sandy Marsters There are many ways to write a story, put a cover on it, and call it a book. In the case of the following three books, we look at a chilling fiction fashioned from whole cloth, a book of historical mystery/fiction about something weirdRead More
December 2023 By Randy Randall Four Months in a Sneak-Box by Nathaniel H. Bishop. Lee & Shepard Publishers. 1879. 348 pp. $19.13. Kindle Edition free. When it comes to cruising, how small a vessel is too small? Extraordinary voyages in ridiculously small boats, it seems, have been a maritime traditionRead More
Fall 2023 Boats with an Open Mind: Seventy-Five Unconventional Designs and Concepts by Phil Bolger. McGraw Hill, LLC. 1994. 432 pp. $22. Reviewed by Randy Randall “Boats with an Open Mind: Seventy-Five Unconventional Designs and Concepts” is Phil Bolger’s last published book. He died in 2009, but his influenceRead More
How To Build a Tin Canoe: Confessions of an Old Salt by Robb White. Hyperion Books. 2003. 228 pp. $45 (Hardcover). September 2023 Reviewed by Bob Muggleston Ever meet someone who might have missed his calling? After reading “How to Build a Tin Canoe: Confessions of an Old Salt,” byRead More
July 2023 By Randy Randall We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea (Swallows and Amazons) by Arthur Ransome, Jonathan Cape Ltd. 1937; 333 pp, $15. If you didn’t happen to grow up in the UK, you might not know about a series of children’s books called “Swallows and Amazons.” IRead More
June 2023 Still Water Bending by Wendy Mitman Clarke, Head to Wind Publishing 2017; 351pp, $17. Reviewed by Christopher Birch There’s been a lot of rumbling lately about the elusive work/life balance. For Jines Arley Evans, that issue is not a concern: The man just fishes. His boat is hisRead More
