Overview

Four hundred nautical miles remained on Captain Bob's singlehanded passage from Mauritius to South Africa when maritime duty called making those the most difficult sea miles ever sailed over the prior twenty-six years. He delayed the pleasures of a safe harbor and risked his yacht and life to save a fellow mariner from peril at sea. This autobiographic nautical adventure recounts the foundation for the events of those days south of Madagascar by reviewing sailing skills gained and confidence acquired while sailing to the Channel Islands off the California coast, yacht club racing earning boat of the year honors, Great Lakes Singlehanded Society competition, redesigning a custom steel sloop, attending a demanding maritime school to earn a coveted international professional mariners license, skippering charter boats, and instructing sailing classes in St. Petersburg, Florida. He presents ocean cruising preparation by making upgrades to steering, navigation, safety, refrigeration, watermaking, radio communications, and the addition of wind and solar power to ensure reliable performance under demanding sailing conditions far out at sea. Other takeaways for those considering singlehanded ocean sailing are watchkeeping procedures while sleeping, daily life under sail, the requirements to legally enter nation-states, and respecting rules, regulations, and customs of societies far different from the homeland. Side stories illuminate those who attempt to leverage power over others and single women wandering the planet crewing, some wanting to be entertained by a single skipper aboard a substantial sailing yacht. Feel the knockdowns, the recoveries, the losses, and redemptions, and live the event that led him to reluctantly allow the long-lived sailing adventure to slip into memory.

Full Product Details

9781948494922

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Captain Bob Krieg's teenage years were filled with adventures on the family sport fishing boat off the Jersey shore and then a twin-engine cabin cruiser on the Chesapeake Bay. He earned a BS degree at the University of Delaware after serving as a corpsman with the Fleet Marine Force in Vietnam as an instructor at a Navy training center. Employment with General Motors required frequent transfers to where he could sail his nineteen-foot Flying Scot. He sailed it on the Great Lakes, Inland lakes, and to islands off the California coast. He accumulated sailing competence and traded the Flying Scott for a thirty-foot Hunter sloop. In Michigan, he competed in Detroit Regional Yacht-Racing Association regattas to repeated sail club boat of the year honors. He participated in the Port Huron to Mackinac Island Challenge and other Great Lakes Singlehanded Society events. His appetite for ocean adventures led him to discover a seasoned forty-eight-foot Amel Maramu ketch. Retired from GM, he delivered the ketch through the Erie Canal and the Intracoastal waterway to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. There he earned an International Yacht Training Worldwide Yachtmaster Offshore certificate achieving his desire for maritime professionalism. With that knowledge, he obtained a USCG Master Mariner license with sail and tow endorsements and American Sailing Association certifications to instruct sailing, skipper charters, and deliver yachts. Before departing on his global quest after the loss of his wife to cancer, he made extensive upgrades to the ketch to ensure reliable singlehanded operation under adverse ocean conditions. His memoir speaks to ocean cruising preparation, learnings from professional maritime training, daily life under sail, singlehanded ocean sailing, immigration entry and departure requirements, maritime duty, societies different from his homeland, and failed sailing romances.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available