The history of the first national park in Texas—the politics, intrigues, controversies, and the people inspired by the stunning desert environment.A breathtaking country of rugged mountain peaks, uninhabited desert, and spectacular river canyons, Big Bend is one of the United States' most remote national parks and among Texas' most popular tourist attractions. Located in the great bend of the Rio Grande that separates Texas and Mexico, the park comprises some 800,0...

Sea, Sun & Taraipo is an adventure story about escaping the rat race on a sailing boat. John Jameson set off on a Polynesian catamaran, Taraipo, to cross the Atlantic and survived losing the mast in a storm, a mugging in Brazil and a collision in the night, and saved a drowning man at sea.He tells the story of what it is really like to share life in a very small space, in constant motion, with nowhere to hide. His dream of crossing an ocean became a 'decade out', with a ba...

If you are thinking about a healthy, life changing, totally immersive, climate friendly, adventurous voyage, listen to our story: Tales of the oceans, sharing life with indigenous people in remote locations, alternating solitude with deep and joyous relationships, confronting danger, storms and shipwreck. We survive to tell the story, in a gentle, easy to listen to, style.

Somewhere between the Galapagos Islands en route to the Marqesas Group in the darkest of nights, at approximately six degrees south of the equator a sailboat is whispering along under full sail. The fresh south east trades are pushing her sleek hull through the coal black water at around eight knots. The man standing at the wheel, wearing ragged shorts only in the warm tropical breeze gently fanning him over the port quarter, helms his craft by starlight alone. All lights have been doused ...

The author shares his dream of sailing around the world, first formulated when he was six years old. The outfitting of his boat for the task and the trip itself taking 7 years, starting and ending in Hawaii. Leading him as far north as Alaska, south to New Zealand and into the relatively uncharted waters of the Black Sea, up the Dnieper River in the Ukraine and to Saudi Arabia. Along the way he encounters high winds to 70 knots and 50 foot waves, equipment breakdowns that have to be diagno...

DON'T HOLD BACK is a must read for all who hear the call of adventure. Tears, terrors, joy and laughter entertains the reader as he follows John around the world on his boat, Moondancer. After years as a ski bum and white water kayaker in the Rocky Mountains, John undertakes his greatest challenge of all, the Worlds Oceans. He quits his job, buys a boat and begins living the Dream entertained by many of us. An amazing man of action who enjoys life to the fullest while experiencing the wond...

Les Powles only had 8 hours of sailing experience when he decided to sail solo around the world. Many novices would be content to just dream of such an adventure, and maybe get as far as a solo Channel crossing a couple of years down the line. Not so Les Powles, one of the twentieth century's most extraordinary and eccentric sailors.Les was in his 50s when he built himself a yacht with little prior knowledge of boatbuilding. Remarkably he made it across the Atlantic, though his nav...

Tells of a sailing journey from San Diego to Australia in a 40 foot sailing boat. Covers Mexico, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, Tonga and Fiji. Also has a chapter on various events "that were too much fun," for the crew. Includes useful detail on various formalities required in the respective ports of call. Chapters on each of the destinations mentioned above and a final chapter on comical (in hindsight) misadventures the crew experienced. Features a fun and farcical quiz to test a reader...

By the same author as the bestselling Total Loss this is a new collection of terrifying and compelling accounts of yachts lost at sea. The seven deadly causes of loss continue to take their toll and Paul Gelder has compiled first-hand accounts of shipwreck and sinking caused by Collision Gear Failure Stress of Weather Faulty Navigation Fire Crew Failure and Exhaustion. The moving emotionally charged descriptions of shipwrecked sailors abandoning their yachts at sea will have you on the edg...

Big adventures on the high seas—from one of the greatest seafaring writers of our ageHal Roth’s vivid, authentic tales of the sea have riveted readers around the world for forty years. Here, in one volume, are three of his classic sea stories, each one a white-knuckled, rail-down voyage into the unknown.A hard-working San Francisco husband and wife abandon their jobs, their security, and, some would say, their sanity to sail their 35-foot sloop to Japan and...

The Reluctant Mariner tells of an Australian couple's five-year circumnavigation of the world in a 12.2-metre long, steel-hulled ketch called Onawa. The author, Joanna Hackett, was once a self-proclaimed landlubber who had never even considered sailing off over the horizon in search of adventure but, having married a man keen to do just that, was willing to "give it a go". Her candid account, penned with dry wit and accessible style, made The Reluctant Mariner a sell-out when it first hit ...

When Ben Tucker and his kid brother Matt decided to sail south in search of icebergs on Ben's small home-built kiwi sloop, their father Jon was allowed to come along as their cabin-boy, on a promise of good behaviour.The unfolding adventure took them through thick pack ice to become trapped at the windiest place on the planet, a remote location in East Antarctica.'Snow Petrel' is proof of what ordinary people can achieve on a minimal budget. Recently released in New Zealand...