The Bookshelf | Free Resources | Gear We Love | Blogs We Follow
Below are more than a few books and references that we’re finding helpful. We hope you find these useful and fun as well. We will continue to update the list as we discover more. Purchasing them from the links below help fund our dream. You get a great online price and a very small portion of the sale comes to us through the Amazon Affiliate program.
General Reference
- The Complete Sailor: Learning the Art of Sailing
- Your New Sailboat: Choosing It, Using It
- Self-Sufficient Sailor
- The Capable Cruiser
- The Cost-Conscious Cruiser
- Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach
- Voyaging on a Small Income
- Cruising Under Sail
- The Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat
- The Intricate Art of Living Afloat
- How to Sail Around the World: Advice and Ideas for Voyaging under Sail
- Self-Taught Navigation, Ten Easy Steps to Master Celestial Navigation
- Wind and Tide: An Introduction to Cruising in Pure Sailing Craft
- Sea-Steading: A Life of Hope and Freedom on the Last Viable Frontier
- Desirable & Undesireable Characteristics of Offshore Yachts
- Nigel Calder’s Cruising Handbook– Gets 5-stars from Matt!
- The Voyager’s Handbook: The Essential Guide to Blue Water Cruising
- Tropical Cruising Handbook
- The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Knots and Ropework
- Why Didn’t I Think of That?: 1,198 Tips from 222 Sailors on 120 Boats from 9 Countries
- US Sailing: Basic Keelboat
- US Sailing: Basic Cruising
- US Sailing: Start Sailing Right
- Fast Track to Cruising: How to Go from Novice to Cruise-Ready in Seven Days
- Fundamentals of Sailing, Cruising, and Racing
- Chapman’s Piloting & Seamanship
- Sailing with Purpose: The Pursuit of the Dream
Women & Cruising Books
- Changing Course: A Woman’s Guide to Choosing the Cruising Life Gets 5-stars from Christie!
- The Cruising Woman’s Advisor: How to Prepare for the Voyaging Life
- Living a Dream: A Journey from Aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 9/11 to Full-Time Cruiser
- It’s Your Boat Too: A Woman’s Guide to Greater Enjoyment on the Water
- Blue Horizons: Dispatches from Distant Seas
- Following Seas, Sailing the Globe, Sounding a Life
- A Prairie Chicken Goes to Sea
- The Motion of the Ocean: 1 Small Boat, 2 Average Lovers, and a Woman’s Search for the Meaning of Wife
Maintaining a Sailboat
- This Old Boat
- Don Casey’s Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual
- Shipshape – The Art of Sailboat Maintenance
- Upgrading the Cruising Sailboat 2nd Edition
- How Boat Things Work: An Illustrated Guide
- Boatowners Mechanical and Electrical Manual 3rd Edition
- Troubleshooting Marine Diesels
- Sailboat Electrics Simplified
- Wiring 12 Volts for Ample Power
- The 12 Volt Doctor’s Practical Handbook
- Sailboat Hull & Deck Repair
- The Finely Fitted Yacht – The Boat Improvement Manual, Volumes I & II
- The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice
- Sail and Rig Tuning
- Pocket Guide to Knots
- The Sailmaker’s Apprentice
- How-to: The Don Casey Online Library – Dozens of informative articles written by the maintenance guru Don Casey, best-selling author of “Do-it-Yourself” books, including “This Old Boat”. Available online on the BoatUS website.
Seamanship Skills
- Heavy Weather Sailing, 30th Anniversary Edition
- Yachtsman’s Emergency Handbook: The Complete Survival Manual
- Offshore Sailing – 200 Essential Passagemaking Tips
- The Annapolis Book of Seamanship
- Handling Storms at Sea: The 5 Secrets of Heavy Weather Sailing
- How to Sail Around the World: Advice & Ideas for Voyaging Under Sail
Cruising Guides
- World Cruising Routes
- Bahamas Explorer Charts
- Skipper Bob Cruising Guides
- The Exuma Guide
- The Northern Bahamas Cruising Guide
- The Southern Bahamas Cruising Guide
- Gentleman’s Guide to Passages South, 8th Edition
Medical
- The Healthy Cruiser’s Handbook
- Where There is No Doctor (a village health care handbook)
- Where There is No Dentist
- SAS Survival Handbook: For Any Climate, in Any Situation
- The Ship’s Captain Medical Guide – UK’s maritime and Coastguard Agency. Free, downloadable medical guide.
- A Comprehensive Guide to Marine Medicine – Written by Dr. Eric A Weiss and Dr. Michael Jacobs, it covers hazardous marine life, submersion injury and dive medicine, rescue and evacuation of sick and injured, wound cleaning and closing, and much more.
- Cruising Medical Kit – Dr. Mark R. Anderson’s article on putting together a medical kit for cruising sailors and to anyone else that may need to function independently of traditional medical resources.
Fitness
- Yoga On Board – Book, DVD & seminars show you how to adapt yoga to the spaces aboard your boat.
Provisioning & Cooking
- The Care and Feeding of the Sailing Crew
- Pressure Perfect
- Cooking Under Pressure
- Cruising Cuisine: Fresh Food from the Galley
- The One-Pan Galley Gourmet: Simple Cooking on Boats
- The Cruiser’s Handbook of Fishing
- The Cruising K.I.S.S. Cookbook II
- The Essential Galley Companion
- Galley Guru: Effortless Gourmet Cooking Afloat
- GalleySwap – A recipe sharing community for galley enthusiasts
- Women & Cruising’s Galley Checklist
Language
- Spanish for Cruisers: The Boater’s Complete Language Guide for Spanish-speaking Destinations, 2nd Edition
- French for Cruisers: The Boater’s Complete Language Guide for French Waters
- Lonely Planet Language Guides Phrase books for over 50 languages for the countries you visit
Voyaging Narratives
- Sailing The Dream
- Maiden Voyage
- A Voyage for Mad Men
- Sailing Alone Around the World
- To Challenge a Distant Sea
Free Online Cruising Narratives
- The Voyage of the Liberdade
- Sailing Alone Around the World
- Jean Gau Atom from Chapter 23 of The Circumnavigators
- The Trouser Rollers, Bill & Pat, have posted a HUGE Cruising Handbook that they wrote which you can download free in PDF format.
- Where There is No Doctor (a village health care handbook) – Recommend you buy the paper version to keep aboard but it’s available electronically too
- The Ship’s Captain Medical Guide – UK’s maritime and Coastguard Agency. Free, downloadable medical guide.
- Cruising Medical Kit – Dr. Mark R. Anderson’s article on putting together a medical kit for cruising sailors and to anyone else that may need to function independently of traditional medical resources.
- Outfitting Checklist – (Download) Pam Wall, Outfitting Manager at West Marine, has a useful Outfitting Checklist that you can download here. Useful in preparing for bluewater cruising, it lists essential spares & boat equipment for anchoring, docking, dinghy, electrical, electronics, engines, galley, navigation, etc.
All of the tools and gear listed below we actually own and use aboard Kaleo.
- Platypus PlusBottles – Great for toting water on the go. Clips on a backpack and rolls down when it’s empty.
- Waterproof backpack – Inexpensive and great for packing a change of clothes or the laptop on a wet dinghy ride
- Sailor Bags – These bags are sturdy, fully collapsible, water resistant and guaranteed for life making them ideal for anyone active on and off the water
- Clear dome umbrella – An easy way to stay dry on a wet dinghy ride while still being able to see in front of you
- Jump drive – for sharing photos and other resources with fellow cruisers
- MSR Packtowels Personal XL – Ultrasoft, compact, quick-drying and Anti-Microbial towels make drying off easy in humid environments
- Canon Powershot D10 Waterproof Camera – known as the cruiser’s camera, it takes beautiful shots and stands up to the hard life of living in saltwater
- Lock & Lock Food-Storage Containers – airtight, watertight, durable polypropylene storage containers that seal in freshness of provisions like baking supplies (flours, sugars, etc.), rice, pastas, cereal, crackers, cookies, etc.
- Adventure Medical Marine 1000 Kit – the ideal cruisers’ first aid kit designed for short offshore adventures. Well stocked to tend to the crew if medical care is 12 – 24 hours away.
- Bullet 2HP WiFi booster – Internet access on the boat when there are unlocked signals within about five miles
- Hawaiian sling – a slingshot type of device used for spearfishing
- Lookie Bucket – a clear bottom bucket used for checking the anchor or looking at reefs without getting wet
- Mr. Heater Buddy – an indoor-safe propane heater for those cold nights we encountered when heading for tropical cruising grounds
- Iris 50 Hand bearing compass – an effective well-made compass for taking bearings when navigating close to shore or tracking a massive freighter’s direction when they’re too close for comfort
- Picquic Mariner – a rustproof fullsize 7-in-1 multibit screwdriver with custom ordered bits to fit the square head screws used on Kaleo (most Canadian-built boats)
- POWER8 Workshop – the most common power wood working tools combined into one flexible unit that packs into a small case and is battery powered, meaning it can be used in remote anchorages or when away from a power source
Cruisers
- Adventures of Sarabande
- Adventures of s/v Tybee Time
- Bumfuzzle
- Come Along with s/v Scream
- Cruising Sabbatical
- Forest and Fin
- Get Lost on Purpose
- Genesis
- Guiding Light
- Last Paradise
- Liz Clark & the Voyage of Swell
- Mid-life Cruising
- Mili & Ted’s Excellent Adventures
- Moonsail
- PacificSailors
- Pipe Muh Bligh
- Plodding in Paradise
- Renova’s Adventures
- Sail Imagine
- Sailing for SOS
- Sailing, Simplicity, and the Pursuit of Happiness
- Sailing Training Wheels
- Sitton on the Beach
- s/v Anastasia
- s/v Anchor Management
- s/v Bella Star
- s/v Deep Playa
- s/v Estrellita
- s/v Hello World
- s/v Honu Lele
- s/v Joint Venture
- s/v Letitgo
- s/v Pisces
- s/v Simplicity
- s/v Storyville
- s/v Tender Spirit
- s/v Third Day
- s/v White Pepper
- Syzygy Sailing
- The Adventures of Fishhead
- The Adventures of s/v Macha
- Toast Floats
- Uliad
- Where are Shawn & Chris?
- Windtraveler
- Zach Aboard
- Zero to Cruising
Advisors
- Boat Bits
- Cruise RO Water and Power
- Cruising Women with a Passion for Sailing!
- eco-boat
- Get Her On Board
- H2uhO – Bonehead moves on the water
- Interview With A Cruiser Project
- Latitude 38 – Lectronic Latitude
- Lin & Larry Pardey
- Living Aboard a Boat
- Messing About in Sailboats
- Navagear
- Nomadness
- Noonsite: The global site for cruising sailors
- Panbo
- Resources For Cruising Sailors
- The Oceans – News and Resources, by sailors
- Women & Cruising – Advice, Resources & Inspiration for Women Cruisers