The Cape Horners’ Club By Adrian Flanagan, Adlard Coles Nautical, 2017; 295 pp., $27. Reviewed by Sandy Marsters For Points East When my wife and I acquired our first big sailboat, we always made sure we had a Big Gulp of ice water at the helm when departing or arrivingRead More

A Speck in the Sea by John Aldridge and Anthony Sosinski; Hachette Book Group, 2017, 247 pp., hardcover $18-20, ebook $14. Reviewed by Sandy Marsters For Points East I wonder what it is about us that makes us ignore internal dialogue, often at our peril. Why do we shush thatRead More

The Salty Bard: Up in Smoke By Craig Parmelee Carter, BeachWrites (www.beachwrites.com) 2017, 48 pp., paperback $8.95, Kindle edition $3.99. Reviewed by Nim Marsh For Points East I enjoy poetry of the sea. Within arm’s reach of my desk is a copy of John Masefield’s “Salt Water Poems and Ballads.”Read More

Notable Boats: Small Craft, Many Adventures By Nic Compton, with illustrations by Peter Scott, The Ivy Press Limited 2016, 160 pp., $29.95 (hardcover). Reviewed by Bob Muggleston For Points East From the “Oxford English Reference Dictionary”: notable/ adj. worthy of note; striking, remarkable, eminent. All sailors have a short listRead More

Desperate Voyage: Donald Crowhurst, The London Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, and the Tragedy of the Teignmouth Electron By Edward Renehan, New Street Communications, LLC 2016, 112 pp., $9.95. By Bob Muggleston For Points East In the annals of sailing, there is one story that, as presented by two BritishRead More

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness By Peter Godfrey-Smith. Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2016. 257 pp., $27. Reviewed by Sandy Marsters For Points East Well, calamari’s off the table now. Paella too. And some of that sushi you crave as well. Turns out thatRead More

Here’s a gripping tale that that is unfortunately very true. It’s a story that mixes high drama, tragedy, rotten luck, stupidity, cowardice, litigiosity, incompetence (on a grand scale), hubris, greed, carelessness, and grief with courage, luck, and a ton more grief.

From Sea of Life to Sea of Dreams By Dave Witherill, Maine Authors Publishing 2016, 186 pp., $14.95 paperback). On a lighter note, we have a retired sea captain from Maine who trades about three football fields worth of oceangoing tanker for 34 feet of sailboat, and, with his wife,Read More

Reviewed by Bob Muggleston For Points East Technology is everywhere these days – even in the humble world of cordage. At first blush that might seem surprising, but not when you really consider it. Even in this modern era, sometimes the lives of rescue responders, mountain climbers, riggers, and sailorsRead More

Reviewed by Sandy Marsters For Points East My grandson, Lewis, achieved his first birthday recently, and, with it, came mobility. Suddenly, navigation became a big concern. He needed to know how to get places, and he needed to remember how he got there so he could get back to hisRead More