SIGHTINGS the sailing books of 2024
LATITUDE / JR
It's that time of year again when we have a look at some of the sailing-oriented books released this year. As usual, we save them up for review in the December issue, so that anyone considering a book as a gift for the sailor(s) in their lives has an idea of what's out there. This was a good year for books, so let's get right into it. The Co-Captain's Log (Katherine Gonzalez, $24.99) — Today we crossed the equator! Champagne was popped, high fives were slapped, chocolate acai bits were nibbled. The only way it could have been better is if we'd actually been aboard the Pacific Seacraft 34 Ana Maria with Katherine and Andres Gonzalez. But we did the next best thing with this first "interactive" book we've ever reviewed: We clicked on the proper QR code, registered on the website, and from there on, received daily emails chronicling Ana Maria's 2023 Pacific Puddle Jump. We admit to skepticism when Katherine, a regular Changes in Latitudes contributor, told us about this plan. But to experience her vision in "real time" — we love it! It's one of the first emails we look at every morning to see how "we" are doing on the crossing, and frankly, we'll be a bit sorry when we finally "get" to Hiva Oa. But that's just one part of this lovely book, which traces the story of Katherine and Andres from when they first met on the ski slopes in Washington in 2016, to their arrival in New Zealand last year. (Earlier QR codes in the book will give you access to videos and more photos of their eight-year journey.) If you're more of a traditional reader, you can power through the entries for their Pacific crossing in a single sitting. But in this case — and this may be the only time we ever say this — by just reading the whole book, you would be missing a part of what makes this one of our favorite cruising books ever. Passages: Cape Horn and Beyond (Lin Pardey, $22.95) — Reading this book was like running into a cherished old friend you haven't seen in a while and catching up with them, through both good times and bad. Although the writing is vintage Lin Pardey, and the reader once again comes aboard for passages on the good ships Seraffyn and Taleisin, the overall theme is a farewell love song to her late husband and co-author Larry, who passed away in 2020. Lin starts that main section with one of the highlights of Larry's life, rounding Cape Horn (in light winds under a drifter, no less), and from there delves into what followed that 2002 milestone: reuniting with kids-turned-adults in the South Pacific; family reunions back home in California and the Pacific Northwest; purchasing a home and small boatyard in New Zealand; numerous speaking engagements — and through it all, the changing dynamic of a loved one experiencing slow physical and mental decline. This is one of Lin's most heartfelt books, as it will likely be for anyone who has experienced a similar journey with a loved one of their own. She ends on the upbeat note of a sort of living memorial for Larry near their home in New Zealand, and a lovely, growing Page 44 • Latitude 38 • December, 2024
relationship with her new cruising partner, David Haigh. The Last Days of the Schooner America (David Gendell, $34.99) — We're embarrassed to admit this is the first book we've read about the low, black schooner for which the America's Cup was named. Which made us kick ourselves, because hers is such a fascinating story. For example, after her famous win over the British racing fleet in 1851, the 101ft America served in both the Confederate and Union navies (the former as a blockade runner and the latter on blockade duty off Charleston). In later years, after a series of different owners, a very old, tired America was donated to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, which had her put in a specially constructed shed at the nearby Annapolis Yacht Yard in 1940. The idea was that she would be restored once the yard was done making PT boats for the war effort. It was not to be: A heavy snowfall collapsed the shed in 1942, and the great yacht was no more. Commanding Old Ironsides — The Life of Captain Silas Talbot (William M. Fowler, Jr., $24.95) — What would you get if you crossed the fictional Captain Jack Aubrey with the very real David Farragut or John Paul Jones? The answer might very well be Silas Talbot, who was raised poor but rose through the ranks — both literal and figurative — to become a well to-do gentleman and war hero. Fowler does an amazing job of bringing him back to life in this book, from his humble beginnings in Massachusetts, where he was born in 1751, to his years as a Continental Army officer, to some seriously crazy adventures with fireships; capturing prize ships; being captured and imprisoned; and commanding the USS Constitution for two years as it patrolled the waters off the West Indies for French privateers. (Although Old Ironsides saw little action in this period, Talbot is credited with the idea and implementation of resupplying ships at sea, rather than having them leave station and go into port.) When the fighting finally stopped, Talbot carried severe burn scars from his fireship adventures, had been wounded 13 times in various engagements, and still carried five bullets in his body until the day he died in 1813. He is the only American during the Revolution to carry commissions from both the Army and Navy. Prevaling Wind (Thomas Dolby, $39.99) — Brothers Davey and Jacob Haskell are stuck in a dead-end life. The sons of a disabled father and caretaker mother, they spend their days on a small, leaky boat checking lobster traps offshore of their Deer Island, Maine, homeport — like everyone else in the area. The pickings are slim in the fished-out waters, and there appears to be no future for them except siring the next generation to do the same thing. Then rich guys from the New York Yacht Club appear on a spectacular yacht to interview the local sailors for spots on the newest boat to race for the America's Cup. Both Haskell boys get picked, but wind up on different trajectories that end with their racing on opposing boats: Jacob aboard Sir Thomas Lipton's Shamrock IV, the British entry, and Davey aboard Harold Vanderbilt's Vanitie. The boats are real, the principals (except for Davey and Jacob) are mostly real, and the cancellation of the 1914 America's Cup due to World War I is also real. The fiction is the $1 million bet to see which yacht wins a race around Manhattan before both are laid up to wait out the war. You'll have to get the book to find out who won, and how.