Book Review:
I was given a copy of the book for Christmas, that is Christmas 2007, the year after the book came out. However it is in no way dated now. It is a collection of stories gathered in Bob’s thirty plus years of cruising. The stories have all been published before, in Latitudes & Attitudes.
Bob founded and runs Latitude & Attitudes, which promotes the cruising lifestyle that he lives. Like SSSS’s founders, he knows you do not have to be filthy rich to sail and the magazine encourages ordinary middle class folk to go cruising. It sponsors seminars and parties for cruisers and those thinking of cruising. So it should be no surprise that the book also encourages the reader to let go the dock lines.
Each chapter is a separate article that takes around three pages. This makes it very easy to pick the book up for a short read. The articles usually consist of one or more cruising stories, told to make a point. The articles are divided into five Parts: The Learning Curve, Cruising, Attitude, Living the Dream, and The Best of Latitudes & Attitudes Editorials.
If you can not tell from the headings, this is not a book on gear, or how to pack, or where to go. This is a book on life style: more of a how to enjoy cruising than a how to do it. That may be the most important part of learning to do it. I mean how long will you cruise if you do not enjoy it?
If you are reading solely for content, I can condense the ideas in the book into a single sentence. Let me quote rule #5 from the article Rules ... we don’t need no rules! “An ordeal becomes an adventure after the passage of enough time.”
But one listens to stories because they are entertaining as much as for one’s education. While this is not a book I would buy for myself, I did enjoy reading it. Short cruising stories well told works for me.
Steve Worcester, Star 6932
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