My Life as a Sailor by Jim Gravelyn

An autobiographical account of one man’s history of sailing, from childhood to old age, this delightful collection of stories is half about the humor, half about imparting actual sailing know-how, and half about warning other sailors to avoid the same mistakes the author made (a ratio mathematically possible only in a book about sailing). From the first Hobie Cat sold in the state of Michigan, to sailboards, to Sunfish, to rental boats offshore of Nixon’s “Winter White House,” and ultimately to full-sized cruising sailboats, there is a wide variety of experience condensed into these pages, all of it, in the final analysis, expressing nothing so much as the author’s deep, abiding—arguably unrequited—love and passion for sailing. As he phrases it:

“The mysterious allure of sailing is difficult for non-sailors to understand. Reading this book you might wonder at times how I can love it so much, with all the hassle, the inconvenience, the discomfort, the unreliability I have described. But very much like golf, another activity I love, where you can spend a whole day sucking and then hit one beautiful shot that rekindles instantly all your passion for the game, sailing will give you moments that are so indescribably sublime you can never get them out of your mind.”