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The Best Sailing Stories Ever Told
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 21 hrs and 52 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Anthologies & Short Stories
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Sailing to the Edge of Time
- The Promise, the Challenges, and the Freedom of Ocean Voyaging
- Written by: John Kretschmer
- Narrated by: Matthew Kevin Anderson
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John Kretschmer is sailing’s practical philosopher - as much a doer as a thinker. And that is the overarching theme of this chronicle of a sailing life. Often amusing, sometimes poignant, occasionally terrifying but always inspiring, his deeply personal account is a welcome reminder of the good life waiting at sea. With hundreds of thousands of nautical miles under his keel, John’s adventures have taken him several times around the world.
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Sailing Alone Around the World
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- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
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Challenged by an expert who said it couldn’t be done, Joshua Slocum, a fearless New England sea captain, set out in April 1895 to prove that a man could sail alone around the world. A little over three years and forty-six thousand miles later, the proof was complete. This is Slocum’s own account of his remarkable adventures during the historic voyage of the Spray.
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A true classic, don't mind the narrator.
- By Emmanuel Goyer on 2020-11-14
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Philosophy of Sailing: Offshore in Search of the Universe
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- Narrated by: Christian Williams
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Veteran sailor and writer Christian Williams invites us along once again on a 5,000-mile voyage of discovery around the North Pacific. Equipped with a new boat, a well-stocked toolbox, and the entire history of philosophic thought, he takes us as crew through squalls and calms deep into a laboratory of the universe that exists only out of sight of land. Funny, erudite, and at times deeply personal, Philosophy of Sailing explores who we are and how encounters with the unknown can be a path to revelation and joy.
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Sailing a Serious Ocean
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After sailing 300,000 miles and weathering dozens of storms in all the world's oceans, John Kretschmer has plenty of stories and advice to share. John's offshore training passages sell out a year in advance, and his entertaining presentations are popular at boat shows and yacht clubs all over the English-speaking world. John's talent for storytelling enchants his audience as it soaks up the lessons he learned during his often challenging voyages. Now you can take a seat next to John - at a lesser cost - and get the knowledge you need to fulfill your own dream of blue-water adventure.
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great book and well narrated
- By Rossignol on 2019-04-04
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Imperfect Passage
- A Sailing Story of Vision, Terror, and Redemption
- Written by: Michael Cosgrove
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Michael Cosgrove had a beautiful family, a successful career, and a lovely Southern California home overlooking the Pacific Ocean. At the age sixty, he decided to leave that all behind to sail around the world. In spite of his romanticized vision of rugged individualism and salty tales to share with his grandchildren, Cosgrove quickly realizes that sailing around the world isn’t going to be as easy as he’d imagined.
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An unvarnished account of a beginner's crossing
- By Steve S on 2019-07-08
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Alone Together
- Sailing Solo to Hawaii and Beyond
- Written by: Christian Williams
- Narrated by: Christian Williams
- Length: 11 hrs
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What happens when a man of today's overconnected world sets off alone across the Pacific at the age of 71? Christian Williams, a veteran sailor and writer, planned a 6,000-mile voyage as a test of his own seamanship and endurance, and to fulfill a lifelong goal. But he found his focus quickly turning from the surrounding sea to all of us. Is anyone the same person when no one else is there? Do we dare to find out?
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Quality single handed sailing conent.
- By Myko Byel on 2019-10-28
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Sailing to the Edge of Time
- The Promise, the Challenges, and the Freedom of Ocean Voyaging
- Written by: John Kretschmer
- Narrated by: Matthew Kevin Anderson
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
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Overall
-
Performance
-
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John Kretschmer is sailing’s practical philosopher - as much a doer as a thinker. And that is the overarching theme of this chronicle of a sailing life. Often amusing, sometimes poignant, occasionally terrifying but always inspiring, his deeply personal account is a welcome reminder of the good life waiting at sea. With hundreds of thousands of nautical miles under his keel, John’s adventures have taken him several times around the world.
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Sailing Alone Around the World
- Written by: Joshua Slocum
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
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Story
Challenged by an expert who said it couldn’t be done, Joshua Slocum, a fearless New England sea captain, set out in April 1895 to prove that a man could sail alone around the world. A little over three years and forty-six thousand miles later, the proof was complete. This is Slocum’s own account of his remarkable adventures during the historic voyage of the Spray.
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A true classic, don't mind the narrator.
- By Emmanuel Goyer on 2020-11-14
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Philosophy of Sailing: Offshore in Search of the Universe
- Written by: Christian Williams
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- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
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Overall
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Veteran sailor and writer Christian Williams invites us along once again on a 5,000-mile voyage of discovery around the North Pacific. Equipped with a new boat, a well-stocked toolbox, and the entire history of philosophic thought, he takes us as crew through squalls and calms deep into a laboratory of the universe that exists only out of sight of land. Funny, erudite, and at times deeply personal, Philosophy of Sailing explores who we are and how encounters with the unknown can be a path to revelation and joy.
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Sailing a Serious Ocean
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After sailing 300,000 miles and weathering dozens of storms in all the world's oceans, John Kretschmer has plenty of stories and advice to share. John's offshore training passages sell out a year in advance, and his entertaining presentations are popular at boat shows and yacht clubs all over the English-speaking world. John's talent for storytelling enchants his audience as it soaks up the lessons he learned during his often challenging voyages. Now you can take a seat next to John - at a lesser cost - and get the knowledge you need to fulfill your own dream of blue-water adventure.
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great book and well narrated
- By Rossignol on 2019-04-04
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Imperfect Passage
- A Sailing Story of Vision, Terror, and Redemption
- Written by: Michael Cosgrove
- Narrated by: Peter Powlus
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Michael Cosgrove had a beautiful family, a successful career, and a lovely Southern California home overlooking the Pacific Ocean. At the age sixty, he decided to leave that all behind to sail around the world. In spite of his romanticized vision of rugged individualism and salty tales to share with his grandchildren, Cosgrove quickly realizes that sailing around the world isn’t going to be as easy as he’d imagined.
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An unvarnished account of a beginner's crossing
- By Steve S on 2019-07-08
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What happens when a man of today's overconnected world sets off alone across the Pacific at the age of 71? Christian Williams, a veteran sailor and writer, planned a 6,000-mile voyage as a test of his own seamanship and endurance, and to fulfill a lifelong goal. But he found his focus quickly turning from the surrounding sea to all of us. Is anyone the same person when no one else is there? Do we dare to find out?
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Quality single handed sailing conent.
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Legendary account of the author's voyage around Cape Horn in a 32-foot sailboat, sailing east to west (thus the Horn is to starboard, or on the right). This is a notoriously difficult and dangerous passage, especially in a boat this size.
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Including stories from paradise and hard-won lessons in seamanship, Taleisin's Tales reflects back to the first miles Lin and Larry Pardey gained together on the second boat they built lovingly with teak carvel planking over sawn black locust frames. The book includes details from outfitting, provisioning, and final detailing during the early months Lin and Larry spent getting to know their new bluewater cruiser, as well as moments of melancholy as they let go of attachments to their first trusty boat.
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At the Mercy of the Sea
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"The tale of Carl Wake and the hurricane that was waiting for him goes straight to the heart of the greatest sea stories: they are not about man against the sea, but man against himself. John Kretschmer's audiobook is as perfectly shaped and flawlessly written as such a story can be. In addition to being the best depiction I have ever listened to of what it is like to be inside a hurricane at sea, At the Mercy of the Sea is as moving a story of a man's failure and redemption as can be found anywhere in the literature of the sea. This audiobook is surely destined to become a classic."
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Post Captain
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This tale begins with Jack Aubrey arriving home from his exploits in the Mediterranean to find England at peace following the Treaty of Amiens. He and his friend Stephen Maturin, surgeon and secret agent, begin to live the lives of country gentlemen, hunting, entertaining, and enjoying amorous adventures. Their comfortable existence, however, is cut short when Jack is overnight reduced to a pauper with enough debts to keep him in prison for life. He flees to the continent to seek refuge.
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To marks
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Master and Commander
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Master and Commander is the first of Patrick O’Brian’s now famous Aubrey-Maturin novels, regarded by many as the greatest series of historical novels ever written. It establishes the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey RN and Stephen Maturin, who becomes his secretive ship’s surgeon and an intelligence agent. It displays the qualities which have put O’Brian far ahead of any of his competitors.
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A Great Sea-Faring Yarn
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Before The Perfect Storm, before In the Heart of the Sea, Steven Callahan's Adrift chronicled one of the most astounding voyages of the century and one of the great sea adventures of all time. In some ways the model for the new wave of adventure books, Adrift is now an undeniable seafaring classic, a riveting firsthand account by the only man known to have survived for more than a month alone at sea, fighting for his life in an inflatable raft after his small sloop capsized.
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Great Story but...
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It's 1942. America have just joined the war. Greyhound, an international convoy of 37 allied ships, is in operation. As Captain Ernest Krause leads his first command of a US destroyer, the convoy ploughs through icy, submarine-infested North Atlantic seas. All the while hotly pursued by wolf packs of Nazi U-boats. Grappling with his newfound superiority and haunting self-doubt in 48 hours of desperate peril, Captain Krause's hopeless mission is doomed to fail. But armed with extraordinary courage and grit, hope may just be on the horizon.
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Terrific book
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The Republic of Pirates
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In the early 18th century, the Pirate Republic was home to some of the great pirate captains, including Blackbeard, "Black Sam" Bellamy, and Charles Vane. Along with their fellow pirates - former sailors, indentured servants, and runaway slaves - this "Flying Gang" established a crude but distinctive democracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom in which servants were free, Blacks could be equal citizens, and leaders were chosen or deposed by a vote.
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Very good history of piracy's heyday
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Celestial Navigation for the Complete Idiot
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Celestial Navigation for the Complete Idiot is groundbreaking not because of what it has, but what it doesn't have: no mathematics problems; no astronomical talk; and no big words you've never heard of. Sailor-author Gene Grossman finally breaks this wonderful subject down into plain English and explains it in such a way that you will no longer have any excuse to claim that you know nothing about the valuable boater's subject of celestial navigation.
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In 1839, Erebus was chosen as the flagship of an expedition to penetrate south to explore Antarctica. Under the leadership of the charismatic James Clark Ross, she and HMS Terror sailed further south than anyone had been before. Provisioned for three winters in the Arctic, Erebus and Terror and the 129 men of the Franklin expedition were seen heading west by two whalers in late July. No one ever saw them again.
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Such a gripping story!
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A Voyage for Madmen
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- Unabridged
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In 1968, nine sailors set off on the most daring race ever held: to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe nonstop. It was a feat that had never been accomplished and one that would forever change the face of sailing. Ten months later, only one of the nine men would cross the finish line and earn fame, wealth, and glory. For the others, the reward was madness, failure, and death. In this extraordinary book, Peter Nichols chronicles a contest of the individual against the sea, waged at a time before cell phones and electronic positioning systems.
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Listen to the epilogue
- By Anonymous User on 2020-07-07
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Longitude
- Written by: Dava Sobel
- Narrated by: Kate Reading, Neil Armstrong
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1714, England's Parliament offered a huge reward to anyone whose method of measuring longitude could be proven successful. The scientific establishment--from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton--had mapped the heavens in its certainty of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution--a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had been able to do on land. And the race was on....
Audible Editor Reviews
Award-winning narrator Mark Ashby flexes his skills in this collection of short stories linked together by the theme of sailing. Ashby's natural, measured cadence and nuanced characterization will make listeners feel as though they are sitting around a fire as a master storyteller holds them rapt with his words. The authors in this collection include such greats as Charles Dickens, Jack London, and Herman Melville, and Ashby provides each story with its own voice - from the cynical terseness of "Dead Reckoning" to the dramatic intonations of "Book XII of Homer's Odyssey".
As Ashby brings each story to a satisfying close, listeners will continue to want more.
Publisher's Summary
For thousands of years, we have set out sailing for all kinds of reasons - for battle, for infinite wealth, for the excitement of exploring the unknown, and for escape from the mundane. We have always had a primal relationship with the sea - even those who have never been to sea remain fascinated by the seafaring life and tales of salty adventure. Now in a brand–new series collection, The Best Sailing Stories Ever Told brings together such diverse authors as Charles Dickens, Jack London, John Masefield, Stephen Crane, Herman Melville, and dozens more. Many of the writers featured here are instantly recognizable and have achieved deserved fame; others who are lesser known and rarely featured in collections take their rightful place on the shelves of sailing literature.
Lovers of the open water will certainly get their fill with this shimmering sample of sea tales that range from the ancient epic and biblical to contemporary. Whether you’re itching for a sailor’s peaceful life at sea, his epic conquest of the azure blue, or his own private descent into madness, this collection touches on the many aspects of life at sea. Even if you are enjoying The Best Sailing Stories Ever Told from the warm, dry comfort of your own living room, you are sure to be inspired by the colorful and stirring stories in this timeless collection.
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What listeners say about The Best Sailing Stories Ever Told
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Frank
- 2020-03-18
Quaint little stories
Just interesting short stories with small little Le messages. Kind of like bed time stories for adults. I wouldn’t call it the best stories ever. Just some stories connected to sailing.
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- J. Glemby
- 2013-10-27
20hours of great fun....
Im not sure who gave this audiobook such a low rating,I must asume it was a error for so much high seas adventure and the best classic adventure at that.......very well told and all stories tracked perfectly,only a fool would dislike this...have fun with this one fellow audiobook travelers...
19 people found this helpful
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- harbormaster85
- 2020-01-27
Couldn't finish this
The stories are rather short and pointless. They make little sense and are just dreary to listen to at all. I tried to get thru it all but could only get thru about 5 hours of it.
1 person found this helpful
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- Nelson Pidgeon
- 2018-10-19
Don't bother.
I'm only about half way through so it could get better but I highly doubt it. These stories are mostly boring and in no way "the best sailing stories ever told" I found myself yelling at the narrator numerous times to get on with it. There were a couple that I could tolerate but overall these stories had a hard time holding my attention. Maybe if you're on a long voyage and all of your other mean's of entertainment are no longer available, maybe then these stories might have a degree of entertainment value.
3 people found this helpful