Life Boat

As founder and editor of the highly successful magazine Latitudes & Attitudes, he surveys and comments on the good and the bad, the funny and the sad, the practical and the theoretical of the sailing scene. This collection of his editorials and other writings is full of useful advice, keen observations and, yes, some outrageous comments, the way only Bob can put them on paper.

John Ortberg invites you to consider the incredible potential that awaits you outside your comfort zone. Out on the risky waters of faith, Jesus is waiting to meet you in ways that will change you forever, deepening your character and your trust in God. The experience is terrifying. It's thrilling beyond belief. It's everything you'd expect of someone worthy to be called Lord.

Team Spirit is a gripping account of a race on the edge, and a young skipper's determined journey to victory. The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is the ultimate long distance challenge - a 35,000-mile circumnavigation of the globe, contested by amateur crews in identical racing yachts - and the winners are those who keep their focus the longest.

When COVID-19 struck the UK, the government advised the over-70s to "shield" while the country went into lockdown. One old man went sailing instead. Single-handed and self-isolated, retired journalist John Passmore used the pandemic to achieve an ambition that had eluded him for 60 years. For 3,629 miles, he disappeared into a world of perfect solitude, adventure, and adversity, arriving back 42 days later, short of water and with shredded sails, to find himself celebrated on national radio as the embodiment of everybody’s lockdown dream. This is his story.

Dreams can be fulfilled, adventures can be felt, as this is what happened to John Taylor, and his close friend from childhood Samuel Parker when they had a tavern and a dream in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the year of 1810. Their strong desire to be the first men on the Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers with the first steamboat to New Orleans. With some luck, and a man named Elis Frank, a keel-boat owner in Pittsburgh. Together they would feel and see the mouth of the Ohio River merge into the mighty Mississippi River with their steamboat Horizon. The adventure that would follow, was more than ...

1941. After the death of her beloved mother, nineteen-year-old Romilly Brooks impulsively accepts a job as a nanny, accompanying eight-year-old Freddie and his grandmother on a sea voyage from war-torn London to the safety of New York. From the first, Romilly is entranced by the opulent ocean liner… if only she could put the idea of German U-boats circling beneath the waves out of her mind.

Grace Winter, 22, is both a newlywed and a widow. She is also on trial for her life. In the summer of 1914, the elegant ocean liner carrying her and her husband, Henry, across the Atlantic suffers a mysterious explosion. Setting aside his own safety, Henry secures Grace a place in a lifeboat, which the survivors quickly realize is over capacity. For any to live, some must die. As the castaways battle the elements, and each other, Grace recollects the unorthodox way she and Henry met and the new life of privilege she thought she'd found.

From the fragility of life almost gone in an instant at a crosswalk, to avoiding the shoals of adolescence, to cell phones driving us to distraction (as we drive!) to turning the tables on telemarketers, to the Iraq War coming home to a small town in Pennsylvania, these pieces are filled with insight and sensitivity, laced with humor and understanding. In his own very unique way, John Grogan makes all of us feel more connected to each other and less like strangers living in a strange land.

Yo and his grandmother are going for a boat ride! There are so many different kinds of boats to see—but what happens when they run out of gas? Will Yo get to finish his boat ride? Or will they be stuck on the water?

Here is the inspiring story of a man who overcame childhood polio to live an adventure-filled life as captain of Maine's most famous windjammer, the schooner Adventure, now a national historic landmark in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Captain Jim shares his adventures afloat, his battles with bureaucracy, and even how he created one of Maine's most unusual restaurants.

What was life really like on a pirate ship? Captain Rumbeard, the famous pirate (in his mind anyway) will take you through the truth and the lies about being a pirate and was life was like on a pirate ship. In this audiobook, we will aim to find out the real truth about pirates and their lives on their ships on the high seas.

What fun it must be to live in a houseboat! The family in this story resides in Florida, where they can explore the ocean and go fishing right from their home. Enjoy this glimpse into a child's life on a houseboat filled with sensory details.

You just tried out for the school play. Who wants the lead part more than anyone? YOU! Imagine stealing piles of jewels and gold coins. Living without rules. Wearing a metal hook and having a parrot as a pet. But be careful what you wish for. That might not be the way it was for a cabin boy on a pirate ship…

"What The Lake Knows" is a modern parable about confronting the stories we tell ourselves—about luck, about loss, about what keeps us safe. In the tradition of "The Alchemist" and "The Old Man and the Sea," this tale reminds us that sometimes our deepest beliefs are the very things preventing us from moving forward. Set against the timeless backdrop of the Great Lakes fishing industry, this meditation on courage, change, and wisdom reveals that our greatest limitations often exist only in our minds. Sometimes the heaviest anchors are the ones we choose to carry. Perfect for readers who ...

Margaret Thursday was named after the day she was found on the church steps as a baby. But she isn’t really an orphan – each year a bag of gold coins is left at the church for her keep. When the money suddenly stops, her guardians have no choice but to send her away to an orphanage. The orphanage is worse than they could have imagined. Vowing to protect her new friends, Peter and Horatio, Margaret plans their daring escape...but she’ll have to outwit Matron at every turn.

She's a fine sailor... and a better witchThe sailing life brings a person close to the elements; it's a life where the unusual is ordinary and the mysterious, even the magical can be downright common. Short handed and with a charter coming up, taking Sira on... on a test basis, you understand, was expedient. She seemed to have a fine knack for boats, and a better one for the elements of the unexpected. She had a closer relationship to them than I could have ever imagined.

Return to Aegos is a continuing story of life on a Greek island, but can be read alone as well as part of a series. In this book, lots of the characters are coming back to the island, some finding family and rebuilding bonds, some finding love. All set against a backdrop of Greek island settings that will make you feel as if you are strolling in the Greek sun as you read. Magnificent scenery, great views, hospitable Greeks, boats, fabulous food, and of course the cats. Life, the Greek way, goes on, against a back drop of beauty and warmth.

This Audible Original drama voyages across the seas on board the USS Abraham Lincoln in pursuit of a mysterious monster that has been terrifying unsuspecting ships, in an expedition to hunt this creature down before more people are injured or killed. Amongst the crew are Professor Pierre Aronnax, who wants to be the first person to identify the creature, believing it to be nothing more than an oversized Narwhal. He’s joined by Ned Land, a Canadian harpoonist, believed to be the best in the world.

From the beloved New York Times best-selling Luanne Rice comes a heartwarming yet heart-wrenching portrait of three far-flung sisters who come home to Martha's Vineyard one last time. Their mother's beach house is the only place any of them ever found true happiness and they need to begin the difficult process of letting go. Memories of their grandmother, mother, and their Irish father, who sailed away the year Dar turned 12, rise up and expose the fine cracks in their family myth.

By the winner of The Journey Prize, and inspired by a real incident, The Boat People is a gripping and morally complex novel about a group of refugees who survive a perilous ocean voyage to reach Canada - only to face the threat of deportation and accusations of terrorism in their new land.