It's easy to confuse (or forget) what particular lights, marks and shapes mean - especially under stress or in the dark - but with this handy book, help is quickly at hand. Laid out simply & clearly for quick accessibility, it enables crew, navigators, skippers and even casual day guests aboard to quickly identify the lights, marks and shapes being displayed by other ships at night as well as during the day. A ready reckoner reminder of: -Cardinal buoys and channel markers -Lights displayed by ships at night (tugs, dredgers, pilot vessels, stationary vessels, fishing boats, yachts, motorboats) and from all aspects (front, side, astern) -Daytime shapes displayed by boats (e.g. for anchoring, towing, diving, dredging) -Ships' sound signals (used in fog) -Signal flags and their navigational meanings (I am dragging my anchor; You are running into danger; I have a diver down). These lights, shapes and marks are applicable worldwide, by maritime law, which makes this international handbook a valuable and popular addition to the Reeds Handbook series.

This is a classic real-life story of derring do on the high seas, complete with extreme risk, last-minute ingenuity and many near-misses.

Beginning in the 1960s, this book tells of the real life adventures of the author as a boy - a time of boarding schools, long holidays and an unbelievable (to today's parents) amount of freedom and danger. Encouraged by his parents (who lived abroad) to become more independent and self-sufficient, Peter decided to see how far he could get in his family's small open dinghy Calypso. Aged 16, he spent a winter restoring her, before pootling straight out into a force 7 gale and very nearly capsizing, after which he headed back to land to plan even more extreme adventures.

Calypso was a Wayfarer, a small (16ft) and very popular class of open dinghy; a boat designed for pottering around coastlines and estuaries during the day. But along with the occasional brave crewmate, Peter managed to sail her across the Channel, through the Bay of Biscay, down the French canals and into the Mediterranean, then up into the North Sea and the Baltic to Oslo, living aboard for three months at a time. These were some of the longest voyages that anyone had ever achieved in an open boat, where (as Peter says) you 'have to be like a tightrope walker, concentrating on balance day and night, fully aware of the consequence of relaxing your vigilance'. He survived huge waves, nine rudder breakages in heavy seas, dismasting, capsizes, and hallucinations caused by sleep deprivation. He also managed it on a tiny budget, working as a farm labourer, hitchhiking everywhere, and at times living on one meal of cereal a day, to save the maximum amount for his boat.

Charming, quite British in style, beautifully written and a lovely insight into a seemingly golden time, this is primarily a great read, but will be of huge practical use to anyone wanting to go that bit further in their dinghy. It also includes a lovely Foreword by world-famous yachtsman Brian Thompson.

For a modest man, Tim Davison has done quite well for himself in the sailing world. He has won National and European championships from the 1970s to 2020s, has skippered his yacht from the Baltic to the Mediterranean and has written over 20 books on sailing. Maintaining that sailing is too important to be taken seriously, he has used the bluffing skills described in this book to help propel his racing boats to the front of the fleet and his cruising boats to the warm waters of the Med - and back. In The Sailor's Bluffing Bible, you will learn how to bluff with the best in the sailing club bar and manoeuvre yourself onto sleek yachts and fast dinghies. Once there, our tips on what to do, what to wear and what to say will come in very handy. You may even be asked back! Whether racing or cruising or on a sailing holiday you will be able to hold your own in conversation, staggering your audience with your sailing knowledge. A perfect book - or gift - for the sailor and would-be sailor, illustrated by nautical cartoonist John Quirk.

The fifth book in Marsali Taylor's thrilling Shetland Sailing Mysteries series. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Val McDermid, Faith Martin, J.R. Ellis, LJ Ross and Ann Cleeves! 'This series is a must-read for anyone who loves the sea, or islands, or joyous, intricate story-telling.' ANN CLEEVES It's the opening night of a touring opera in Shetland, and while the show is a success, it soon becomes clear that tensions are even higher backstage than they have been on it. When the company's star performer dies suddenly under suspicious circumstances, sailing skipper and amateur sleuth, Cass Lynch is determined to get to the bottom of the tragedy. But the wind rises and the power cuts out. Can Cass brave a raging gale to uncover the scheme of another ruthless killer . . . before the killer finds her? Previously published as Ghosts of the Vikings. _____________________________ PRAISE FOR THE CHILLINGLY ADDICTIVE, NAIL-BITING SERIES: 'A brilliant series beautifully written something for every taste in these stories!' 5* Reader review 'The story is fast-paced with some good build up of tension and some quirky humour to enliven the proceedings too... I cannot wait to buy number 6' 5* Reader review 'Once again Marsali Taylor combines her love of sailing and of Shetland to create a murder mystery that kept me guessing' 5* Reader review '...the author's love of the subject drew me in and I found the whole thing fascinating. And it was an excellent mystery too' 5* Reader review

David Hillyard, founder of the famous firm of boatbuilders in Littlehampton, was born in the late nineteenth century, at the height of the Big Boat era. His family were stalwarts of Rowhedge in Essex, where the aristocratic owners of the enormous cutters dicing in the Solent sent their skippers to pick their racing crews of hard-bitten fishermen. Yachts, in those days, were for the very rich, but the men who sailed them were often the reverse. Perhaps it was a consciousness of this divide that led Hillyard-a devout Christian, descended from a long line of fishermen-to build boats that were robust, practical, and within the means of those lacking the advantage of dukedoms or armaments factories. This account of David Hillyard's voyage from apprentice boatbuilder to founder of a boatbuilding dynasty will be deeply interesting not only to owners of his boats and enthusiasts of traditional boatbuilding, but to anyone interested in the story of messing about in boats as practised in Britain. It also provides fascinating insights into the development of a small but significant corner of the relationship between the people of these islands and the seas that surround us.

In the late 1920s Norwegian Erling Tambs and his wife Julie set out from Oslo with their Colin Archer pilot boat Teddy, little in the way of navigational equipment, and not much else. The Cruise of the Teddy is Erling's charming and modest account of how, with great fortitude, resourcefulness and good humour they reached New Zealand via the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, with many delightful human encounters along the way, to arrive with one more in the family than they started with.

Compiled by a team of Cruising Association regional editors and Imray, the Cruising Almanac is an annual publication first published over 100 years ago and long regarded as the perfect on board companion for cruising yachts. Each year, a well-known cruising sailor writes the Preface, and this year's is by Tom Cunliffe. The Almanac covers Northwest Europe from the Shetlands and southern Norway to Gibraltar and West Ireland to the Baltic. Based on first-hand experience and official data, all sections - text, plans, tidal data - are checked and updated annually. With over 750 port entries alongside passage notes (easily identified by their pale blue background colour), it's a vital tool for both planning and whilst at sea. 2021 tide tables for 47 standard ports are included in a separate booklet. The main Almanac contains tidal stream diagrams: full tidal details for secondary ports are included with the text for the relevant port. Updating of the Almanac continues throughout the year, with corrections published monthly on the Cruising Association website Almanac corrections page.

In this first biography of David Henry Lewis, Ben Lowings examines his lifetime of adventure forensically yet sympathetically, and unlocks the secrets of his determination. This British-born New Zealander was the first person to sail a catamaran around the world, the first - in Ice Bird - to reach Antarctica solo under sail, and the first to make known to Westerners how ancient navigators reached - and could reach again - the Pacific islands. His many voyages resulted in thirteen books published and translated worldwide; many were bestsellers - We, the Navigators has not been out of print since first publication in 1972. David Lewis's achievements have been acknowledged with a series of awards, including that of Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. But the price of David Lewis's adventures had ultimately to be paid by others in the succession of families he created, then broke apart; and many of his actions brought him into conflict with the feelings of friends and contemporaries. We may legitimately ask 'was it really all worth it?' For the first time his six marriages are revealed, through more than a year of original research in Britain, Australia and New Zealand - including interviews with all surviving family members, as well as friends and fellow voyagers. Events thinly-sketched or omitted in his own writings, such as his father's own failings, are investigated. His kayaking, mountain-climbing and sailing were struggles all the more difficult because of a fractured backbone, shattered elbow and impaired vision. David Lewis's early years get the comprehensive documentation they deserve - in his own memoir he jumps straight from child to fully-fledged explorer. Inaccuracies are corrected in his tale of kayaking four hundred miles home from school. As playboy medical student, British paratrooper fighting in Normandy, and political activist in Palestine, Jamaica and London, he grappled with academic and colonial prejudice, and fought anti-Semitism and inequality; all is examined. As a general practitioner in the East End's impure 1950s air he worked where the new National Health Service was most needed. Professional frustrations and marital disappointments were not soothed by weekend sailing. He would join a pioneering single-handed yacht race to America in 1960, leaving his first daughter to find him on board in Plymouth to say farewell only at the last minute. In 1964 he would race again, but this time in a catamaran, and then, with Fiona, his new wife, and their daughters, girdle the earth in it. For the first time, their circumnavigation is described in part from Fiona's perspective. Media accounts and passages from his many books build up a picture of a consistently experimental, and utterly untypical, middle aged man. Every word in the Antarctic logbook of Ice Bird - scrawled with freezing hands - is closely compared with literary sources, National Geographic articles and his commercially successful book-length account. A new critical appreciation shows the white heat at the core of his being. He has abandoned his children again, and been drugged by ocean solitude. But in the act of writing he is earning his place among humanity. To hell with the frozen hands.

Chart scale 1: 350 000 Plans included: Figueira da Foz (1:15 000) Nazare (1:15 000) Porto de Peniche (1:10 000) Cascais (1:15 000) Lisboa Approaches (1:65 000) Lisboa (Lisbon) (1:30 000) Sesimbra (1:15 000) Entrance to Rio Sado (Setubal) (1:40 000) Setubal (1:40 000) Sines (1:30 000) On this edition the chart specification has been improved to show coloured light flashes. There have been numerous updates to harbour developments across the chart, this includes completed harbour works at Sines. The plan of Lisbao Approaches has been extended westward so to include larger scale approaches to both Lisboa and Cascais. There has been general updating throughout.

"I first met her in Tollesbury and immediately fell for her. She was an -Essex girl through and through but not like all the others, although she was shallow. As far as I could see then there were only two problems. There was a big age difference-fifty-five years. She was born in 1904 and I was ten back then in 1959. None of this mattered to me but the second problem would be trickier: my Dad loved her too." So begins Nick Imber's affectionate account of his family's love affair with the barge yacht Nan, who was to give so much pleasure to three generations, across twenty years from the 1950s to the 1970s. We share Nick's childhood excitement on first encountering Nan, his teenage pride in skippering her for the very first time, and his quiet pleasure as his own children take to the water in her. Nan took good care of them all; whether exploring a peaceful East Coast river, braving a gale at sea, or drying out on an idyllic Devon beach, she demonstrates that the humble barge yacht has so much to offer the young sailing family.

John Kretschmer is sailing's practical philosopher - as much a doer as a thinker. And that is the overarching theme of this chronicle of a sailing life. Often amusing, sometimes poignant, occasionally terrifying but always inspiring, his deeply personal account is a welcome reminder of the good life waiting at sea. With hundreds of thousands of nautical miles under his keel, John's adventures have taken him several times around the world, with challenging crossings of the Atlantic and the Pacific, a narrow escape from a coup in Yemen, an unlikely deliverance from a coral reef off Belize as well as more serene, introspective passages where trade winds are blowing and stories are flowing. His crew has included CEOs, actors, writers, teachers, kids - in essence, everyone. John's narrative is interwoven with practical tips and advice in seamanship, but also, and just as importantly, his hard-won insights about making the most of our lives. He truly believes we find out who we really are, and what we are capable of, far from the shackles of land, when we find a place where time changes shape - days may merge into one another, but minutes are memorable. To live adventurously is to live more fully, and that is the life John Kretschmer continues to live. In this book he shares his simple profundities that will inspire those who live to sail, and those seeking something more rewarding from life.

This popular book covering the Caribbean from Grenada and Barbados to the Virgin Islands is a translation from Jacques Patuelli's original French version. Each island is dealt with in detail and pilotage notes are followed by tourist information and the usual data on formalities and facilities. Fully illustrated with plans and photos, many of which are new for this second edition, the guide is packed with interesting and useful background information on the Caribbean; its history, tourism, geography and details on sailing in the islands. The last section of the book, the blue pages, consists of listings of facilities, restaurants, bars, hotels and other information of interest to tourists.

For the past 12 years, Jo Winter has been cruising these waters in her 45' Island Packet, Brother Wind, and she describes it as one of the most diverse, beautiful, unspoilt and undiscovered sailing areas in the world. The book covers thousands of miles of coastline, a multitude of islands and inland up many of the region's navigable rivers. Along with a comprehensive range of information to help with planning a cruise in this region, the introductory section details weather information, including coverage of typhoons, and also indicates piracy risk areas to be avoided. Sailing directions include small scale area plans to orientate the navigator and larger scale plans to show details of harbours and anchorages. Full colour throughout, the plans and numerous photographs illustrate key features and places. Whether transiting the region or planning a more extended cruise along any of the coastlines bordering the South China Sea, this guide is an essential companion.

Based on his journals, with literary assistance provided by a ghostwriter, this 1832 publication gives an account of the early life and later voyages of the American sealer and explorer Benjamin Morrell (1795 1839). The titular adventures consisted of explorations of the Pacific and Antarctic between 1822 and 1831. The text describes unfamiliar bodies of land, sometimes violent interactions with native populations (several of Morrell's crew were killed in the Carteret Islands), and encounters with the slave trade. Morrell also claimed to have been the first American captain to cross the Antarctic Circle. However, there are doubts about the veracity of his narrative, as reported distances, times and locations, particularly in the Antarctic, have proven to be inaccurate. This has been attributed variously to error, exaggeration or outright deception. Morrell himself admits to enhancing his narrative by drawing on information furnished by other navigators."

Martin O'Scannall loves the old, the eccentric, the offbeat - the quirky if you like; the wandering off into byways, the exploration of half-forgotten snippets of history. And Galicia, his home for the past decade or more, is ideal territory for indulging that taste. Galicia is a time warp: rain-swept, isolated, savage and gentle by turns, as far a cry from the blazing Costas as it is possible to imagine. This book is a conversation with the past, conducted in a very old, engineless gaff cutter, armed with the Admiralty Pilot, a gallant crew, and a sense of the ridiculous. We encounter, but in unexpected ways, the likes of Drake, Nelson, the ill-fated HMS Serpent, Celtic myth and legend, and the reminiscences of those who have gone before, all interspersed with the business of managing an old yacht in the old way: Walker log, paper charts and all. Beginning, as he says it has to be, with the dreaded storm at sea.

Plans included: Porto Novo (Ilha de Santo Antao) (1:10 000) Mindelo (Porto Grande) (Ilha de Sao Vicente) (1:20 000) Ilha de Santa Luzia (1:not known) Porto de Tarrafal (Ilha de Sao Nicolau) (1:8500) Porto da Preguica (Ilha de Sao Nicolau) (1:8500) Baia da Palmeira (Ilha do Sal) (1:15 000) Porto de Sal-Rei (Ilha da Boavista) (1:30 000) Porto da Praia (Ilha de Santiago) (1:22 000) Cavaleiros (Ilha do Fogo) (1:10 000) Porto da Furna (Ilha Brava) (1:10 000)

Monkeying Around at Sea follows Angela Coe's two-year voyage from Singapore to Spain in a Ferro cement boat named Sandpiper. Travelling alongside her husband, Bobby, a monkey called Pixie and her cat, Bob-tail, Angela embarks on an incredible adventure with no previous experience of sailing. Disasters start from day one when, still at anchor, Pixie goes overboard and is thought to be lost. Bobby, the Captain, ends up in a hospital with a dislocated shoulder and when they finally set sail, they end up on a sandbank. Their aim is to sail to England, but their plan to go around the cape soon becomes a perilous quest to brave the Red Sea... While tragedies occur almost daily as they battle with life at sea, living aboard Sandpiper also has its lighter moments. Pixie keeps them on their toes and every new port brings fascinating places and people.

Plans included: Approaches to Ponza (1:10 000) Approaches to Porto d'Ischia (1:10 000) Approaches to Sorrento (1:30 000) Approaches to Marina Grande (Capri) (1:25 000)