Posted by Joel Silverberg on November 09, 2004 at 21:33:50 from 24.250.20.113 user joels.
In Reply to: Re: steering while sailing solo-proper fore/aft balance posted by Jon on November 09, 2004 at 13:22:46:
I will echo Jon's recommendation of L Francis Herreshoff's Compleat Cruiser. Written about the same time as Ransome's stories. One of the best cruising accounts ever written (imho). I've read it about 5 times and never tire of it. It captures the spirit of comraderie and adventure of cruising before WW-II.
Another interesting read (not as good as Herreshoff's in my opinion) is The Boy, The Cat, and Me. Published by "The Catboat Association": http://www.catboats.org/
It is the tale of an insurance salesman who takes off with his 14 year old son in a 24-foot catboat in 1912 and sails from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to the Florida Keys and back. His many adventures include a constant diet of boiled scaup (a sea duck) which he shoots when he is able ... and a shipwreck off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina which leave them stranded on a sandspit for weeks before they are rescued. The writing isn't all that skillful, but the tale is totally absorbing. It was originally "published" as a carbon-copy typescript that he circulated to friends and acquaintances.