'This cruising guide for ocean voyagers provides invaluable passage-planning information for tried and tested routes around the world. Climates and weather patterns, currents, seasons and timings are key to selecting routes, but just as important is knowing something about the countries that you will arrive in. Details of the expected formalities and regulations are followed by essential information on key landfalls, accompanied by the first-hand observations of well-known world sailors and authors Rod Heikell and Andy O’Grady. Text and plans have been updated for this third edition which is illustrated with a number of new photographs to inspire both dreamers and passagemakers. “I have recently been planning a voyage from Trinidad to New Zealand using Ocean Passages and Landfalls by Rod Heikell and Andy O'Grady. The book has been an exceptional resource. The mass of information on a wealth of subjects is excellent. The layout is beautifully put together and very accessible. The pilotage and chartlets will be invaluable. The book will certainly be travelling with me and I cannot recommend it highly enough to anybody who is planning ocean voyaging.” Theresa Kewell, S/Y Mr Blue ‘This is a ‘blue planet’ book. Its scope is awe-inspiring as it takes an overview of the globe as the yachtsman’s potential cruising ground… It is of course possible to glean all the macro information from scientific geophysical sources, but the personality and experience of the authors adds an indispensable ingredient.’ Yachting Monthly

This is a handbook for world cruisers, this provides invaluable passage-planning information for crossing the oceans, with discussions on climates, seasons, oceanography and the merits of different world cruising routes. Fully illustrated with over 300 charts and plans in full color.

"I know you'll want to read more after you finish Sailing a Serious Ocean. And be warned, you'll very likely want to sail with John, perhaps across an ocean." -- DALLAS MURPHY, AUTHOR OF ROUNDING THE HORN After sailing 300,000 miles and weathering dozens of storms in all the world's oceans, John Kretschmer has plenty of stories and advice to share. John's offshore training passages sell out a year in advance and his entertaining presentations are popular at boat shows and yacht clubs all over the English speaking world. John's talent for storytelling enchants his audience as it soaks up the lessons he learned during his oftenchallenging voyages. Now you can take a seat next to John--at a lesser cost--and get the knowledge you need to fulfill your own dream of blue-water adventure. In Sailing a Serious Ocean, John tells you what to expect when sailing the oceans and shows how to sail safely across them. His tales of storm encounters and other examples of extreme seamanship will help you prepare for your journey and give you confidence to handle any situation—even heavy weather. Through his personal stories, John will guide you through the whole process of choosing the right boat, outfitting with the right gear, planning your route, navigating the ocean, and understanding the nuances of life at sea. Our oceans are beautiful yet unpredictable—water that is at one moment a natural mirror for the glowing sun can turn into a foamy, raging wall of fury. John knows our oceans, and he is one of the best teachers of taming and enjoying them. Before you set off across the big blue, turn to John for his inspirational stories and hard-learned advice and discover the serious sailor in you.

A good general cruising guide covering the routes from Europe to Australia and points in between. The 'Indian Ocean Cruising Guide' covers all the usual points of interest for cruising yachtsmen, from history to climate, weather patterns, formalities, route planning and so on. The general sections are followed by a country-by-country round-up in which key ports are described in detail with the aid of harbour plans and photographs. This second edition (2007) has been thoroughly revised and contains a lot of additional information on Malaysia and Thailand, the Seychelles and the Chagos archipelago. The introduction has been expanded and throughout there are new plans and photographs. This guide is an ideal companion to Rod Heikell and Andy O'Grady's 'Ocean Passages and Landfalls' which discusses routes across the Indian Ocean.

"The only complete cruising guide to the islands of the Pacific . . . a must." —Islands "A trove of information for the cruiser planning to set sail for the Pacific. . . A very readable, easy-to-follow guide." —Santana The fifth edition of this sailing standard includes updated charts and text reflecting changes in regulations and facilities for most countries and specific ports of entry. New appendices include procedures for entry to Australia, which are more exacting than most Pacific landfalls, and an extensive list of information sources: cruising guidebooks, important general tourist guides, chart suppliers, and key web sites for the countries covered by Landfalls of Paradise.

The gripping story of a dramatic eighteenth-century voyage of discovery from Naomi J. Williams In her wildly inventive debut novel, Naomi J. Williams reimagines the historical La Pérouse expedition, a voyage of exploration that left Brest in 1785 with two frigates, two hundred men, and overblown Enlightenment ideals and expectations, in a brave attempt to circumnavigate the globe for science and the glory of France. Deeply grounded in historical fact but refracted through a powerful imagination, Landfalls follows the exploits and heartbreaks not only of the men on the ships but also of the people affected by the voyage-natives and other Europeans the explorers encountered, loved ones left waiting at home, and those who survived and remembered the expedition later. Each chapter is told from a different point of view and is set in a different part of the world-ranging from London to Tenerife, Alaska to remote South Pacific islands and Siberia, and eventually back to France. The result is a beautifully written and absorbing tale of the high seas, scientific exploration, human tragedy, and the world on the cusp of the modern era. By turns elegiac, profound, and comic, Landfalls reinvents the maritime adventure novel for the twenty-first century.

For all the romantic mythology surrounding the court of Queen Elizabeth I, the financial underpinning of the reign of ‘Gloriana’ was decidedly sordid. Elizabeth’s policy of seizing foreign assets made her popular at home but drew her into a partnership with pirates who preyed on the state’s foes and friends alike, being rewarded or punished depending on how much of a cut the Queen received, rather than the legitimacy of their action. For this reason the rule of law at sea was arbitrary and almost non-existent. Even those, such as the Lord Admiral and the Court of Admiralty, who were tasked with policing the seas and eliminating piracy, managed their own pirate fleets. While honest merchants could rail and protest, the value to the exchequer of this dubious income was enormous, often equaling, on an annual basis, the input from all other sources such as taxation or customs dues. Moreover, the practice of piracy taught English seamen how to fight and, when the nation was at its greatest peril, in 1588, it was pirates who kept the Spanish Armada away from invading the English coast. Charles Howard, commander of the British forces, Richard Grenville, Walter Raleigh and Francis Drake, were all pirates who became ‘admirals all for England’s sake’, and were well rewarded by the Queen for their exploits. This highly original book argues that the deeply ingrained piratical and self-interested approach to naval warfare by these English captains almost allowed the Armada to succeed. A radical reassessment of Elizabethan maritime history, Pirate Nation makes this and a number of other startling revelations about the myth and the reality of Elizabethan naval policy. A highly readable work, this radical reappraisal of Elizabethan maritime practice offers provocative insights about some of the most cherished events in British history.

As Schmidt circles the Bay counterclockwise from Jamestown, she explores Smith's encounters with Native Americans and the Bay's ecological changes over the past hundred years. On each river and creek, she quotes Smith's journals on matching wits with Powhatan, meeting Pocahontas, surviving thunderstorms, ambush, and a stingray's barb. Anchored on wild creeks, Schmidt observes swans and dragonflies, lightning and sunsets; in port she interviews colorful characters and working watermen about blue crabs and oysters.