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MoonlightShadow · 15-02-2010, 15:22

I'm bug***d if I can remember that far back! But it was probably a WWII novel about the War at Sea. As a kid I was fascinated about convoys and U Boats. Don't know why, as I was brought up in London. Read loads of them. Then, one day I read about the Kon-tiki and RA expeditions, and became hooked. Next it was all the works of the Hiscock's. The Wreck of The Mary Deere, and so on, and so on...

I have not cruised much farther than The North Sea and The Channel, and a bit of Med, but I just love reading what everyone else has done. I soak it up like a kid still. I read all the UK mags and read all the cruise accounts. It's brilliant stuff.

Then there is of course this site. I have spent many a cold winter's evening happily reading the posts in the warmer climes, and have absolutely loved it all.

Butler · 15-02-2010, 21:43

Tinkerbelle in high school.
Recently loaned and lost :~( my old dog eared copy of Royces Sailing Illustrated "Finn to Finnistere" that I picked up a little later. Worked the heck out of that little book and still pick it up now and then.

Solosailor · 22-03-2010, 21:57

I wasn't much of a reader as a kid but someone gave me a copy of Dove as a birthday present. I loved that book. In fact I would love to have a copy again. I know it's out of date but it made such a big impression on me. Funny how a book and actually influence you for a life time.

rustypirate · 22-03-2010, 22:10

Like many others here, my first sailing book was Dove, but the first book to ignite my adventurous spirit was called "My Side of the Mountain". It was a story about a teen aged boy who runs away form home and survives in the wilderness of the Upstate New York mountains for 3 years.

For a boy entering into his teen years it was quite influential.

Gone2long · 19-09-2010, 08:25

Kon Tiki, then "Adrift" - wow.

Regards,

Goner

Searanger50 · 26-09-2010, 11:50

Sailing Around The World by Guy Bernadin. He recreated Joshua Slocum's voyage with his family in a replica of Spray. An excellent read.

schoonerdog · 29-09-2010, 05:05

Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebi when I was 18 years old. Game over after that. I was aboard by age 25 and haven't jumped off since. All her fault

(Cindy, Schoonerdog's wife)

Dkdoyle · 16-12-2010, 16:36

Dove and Joshua slocum. Don't remember which was first but probably slocum. How about most recent "true spirit"

**boatman61** · 16-12-2010, 16:48

Ulysses.. when I was 11... I don't think the 'Just William' exploits qualify..

**boatman61** · 16-12-2010, 16:50

Or was it 'Jason and the Argonauts'.... I used to be nuts about the Greek Gods,Legends and Hero's.. and anything about the Vikings

Larsdelmar · 16-12-2010, 16:53

I forget the name of the book, but it was about the Sea Adler and it's raiding during WWI. Another I believe was Fire and Ice about a British expedition searching for a route across the top of Russia from the Bering Sea. It always amazed me that they never ran out of their daily issue of Rum back in the day. I'm currently giving Maiden Voyage another read and finding that if that ill prepared 18 year old girl could make a circumnavigation there is no reason I shouldn't.

bljones · 16-12-2010, 17:01

I was hooked when my parents return from a vacation in the Bahamas and gave me a copy of Lynn Wainwright's "Fish and His Friends," a pre-teen adventure set on Fort William Island. That was 1976, and I was an impressionable 9 year old. two years later I had my own Mirror dinghy and was exploring the world as defined by the limits of Pittock Lake. I read "Dove" the next year, and was so sail addicted I wrote a book review. I also discovered that girls dig boats. I wasn't sure what the hell to do with said girls, but hey! I was a playa, yo! I was short,, fat, shy, near -sighted, and stuttered, but
I.
Had.
A.
Boat.
And that leveled the playing field substantially.

I simultaneously sported a goofy grin and a perpetual hard-on from May to October that year.... and every year after, come to think of it.
The rest is all preordained.

'scuse me, while I cue up Lyle's "If I had a Boat".

frank_f · 16-12-2010, 17:05

Treasure Island when I was 10. Still have the book.

I almost got the sea out of my system then some guy named Buffett wound me back up again and has been keeping me tight ever since.

Any other fruitcakes or parrot heads?