What are you reading?

Aside from sailing blogs, here's what's been on my sailing related bookshelf these past few months.

By the Way of the Wind and Swell are both interesting books. These ocean-going sailors have great experiences to share in their books.  Jim Moore and his newly married wife set off for the South Pacific in their hand-built boat and travel around the world.  It is quite a story set in the early 70's and ending in the early 80's. The book ends with them setting off from Hawaii on another sailing adventure. While it was a great story, it refers to many political occurrences that occurred before my time and while important seem trivial in many ways today.  There are a lot of descriptions of the weather and it can be a bit long at times. Reading this confirmed my desire to be a Great Lake sailor more than ever.  The length of time it takes to passages across oceans is just something I'd rather not do.

Swell by Liz Clark is another story altogether.  Liz Clark is a surfer on a mission of self-discovery and an environmental activist.  Well renowned, her book gives a glimpse into the many modern environmental problems we face today.  She spends much of her time in the book agonizing over the hardships of life aboard the boat. I'm not sure the book character "Liz" is the true person Liz is as you read her blog she comes across much more real and a lot more put together. I hope the blog Liz is the real person. 

I picked up Uncharted Waters at the library on a whim. After the last two sail cruising books, I was not sure I wanted to dive into another. This one was so good it was a 24-hour read. Mary McKSchmidt really hit this one on the nose. It talks about the Great Lakes in ways other books I've seen like "Water Wars" doesn't. She hits upon the need for changes in environmental practices without coming off as alarmist. It is a book about sailing and cruising where I sail too so that is a big plus. Saugatuck is mentioned several times in the book however I notice she tends to glass over and not mention the algae blooms in Lake Macatawa where she keeps her boat. Overall, this is a must-read for sailors and cruisers. Highly recommended. 

Yeah, this is the big one. I'm still working on it and will definitely be looking back in it from time to time.  If you haven't seen this it is basically every single rule and regulation out there.  I'm amazed how much of this stuff I already know but wow the depth of detail in this is pretty impressive.