Sailing along California's often forbidding coast was a risky venture before 1854, the year the state's first lighthouse was established. Eventually more than forty lighthouse stations were built to guide mariners along 1,200 miles of coastline from San Diego to the Redwood Coast, and through bays and inland waters.Sharlene and Ted Nelson tell absorbing stories about each of these lighthouse stations, about the feats of their builders, and about the heroics of the men and women who...

The Florida Keys: A History & Guide is an engaging handbook to the unique coral and limestone islands that curve southwest off the tip of Florida. Acclaimed novelist and Florida resident Joy Williams traces U.S. Highway 1 from Key Largo to Key West, combining the best of local legend—colorful stories you won’t find in other guidebooks—with insightful commentary and the most up-to-date advice on where to stay, eat, and wander. Along the way, you will:• explore the exquisite...

What is the allure of Antarctica?Ice? Snow? Water? Penguins?This cold, southernmost continent is an increasingly popular tourist destination. It's vast landscape of ice, snow and wildlife attracts nature-loving vacationers and tourists who enjoy activities such as kayaking or cross-country skiing. Others simply float through the area on-board a cruise ship. Whatever the reason people are coming to Antarctica and it's causing some controversy.Some of the subjects dis...

This edition is Part II of The Island Hopping Digital Guide to the Virgin Islands and covers Tortola, Jost Van Dyke, Norman Island, Virgin Gorda, and Anegada.The Island Hopping Digital Guides are the digital versions of the world-famous cruising guides written by Stephen J. Pavlidis. Over the past 20 years, Stephen J. Pavlidis has written more than 10 excellent cruising guides covering all of the waters from south Florida to the islands of Trinidad and Tobago and everything in betw...

"Not only a gorgeously photographed guide to the best waves in the world but a lucid introduction to the science behind them." — The Wall Street JournalWave watchers around the world know that no two waves are the same. Yet each and every wave that rises, peaks, and crashes onto the beach is generated by a much larger force originating thousands of miles away. Surf journalist team Evan Slater and Peter Taras capture the essence of waves and the swells that...

"What Moby-Dick is to whales, Brilliant Beacons is to lighthouses—a transformative account of a familiar yet mystical subject." —Laurence Bergreen, author of Columbus: The Four VoyagesIn this "magnificent compendium" (New Republic), best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin presents the definitive history of American lighthouses, and in so doing "illuminate[s] the history of America itself" (Entertainment Weekly). Treating read...

Sailing well into his eighties, Captain Eric Forsyth shows in his book, An Inexplicable Attraction: My Fifty Years of Ocean Sailing, that age need not be a barrier to an adventurous retirement. His love of ocean sailing was ignited in 1964 when he crossed the Atlantic with his wife, Edith, crewing aboard a friend’s 46-foot boat. For more than fifty years, mostly aboard his sturdy cutter Fiona, Forsyth has cruised the oceans of the world, making voyages th...

Dominic Goncalves led a normal life until he was nine then his parents sold their house and business, bought a boat, and set off to sail around the world. So began an epic adventure of sailing aboard their thirty-seven-foot Endurance, Indigo from the tip of Africa across the South Atlantic Ocean to the magical islands of Saint Helena, Ascension, Brazil, French Guiana, and the Caribbean. This book is for all those who have a deep yearning, a restlessness, to explore and discover new lands.

This edition is Part IV of The Island Hopping Digital Guide to the Exuma Cays and covers the Southern Exumas.The Island Hopping Digital Guides are the digital versions of the world-famous cruising guides written by Stephen J. Pavlidis. Over the past 20 years, Stephen J. Pavlidis has written more than 10 excellent cruising guides covering all of the waters from south Florida to the islands of Trinidad and Tobago and everything in between.Each cruising guide contains many col...

Kobbé discusses what life was like for a working diver during the late 19th century.

This edition is Part I of The Island Hopping Digital Guide to the Exuma Cays and covers the Northern Exumas.The Island Hopping Digital Guides are the digital versions of the world-famous cruising guides written by Stephen J. Pavlidis. Over the past 20 years, Stephen J. Pavlidis has written more than 10 excellent cruising guides covering all of the waters from south Florida to the islands of Trinidad and Tobago and everything in between.Each cruising guide contains many colo...

Interest in the history and preservation of lighthouses has never been stronger. Lighthouses of the Mid-Atlantic Coast details the history of lighthouses and much more, and shows why these structures continue to fascinate us. Discover what life for lighthouse keepers was really like. Learn about the history of U.S. colonial lighthouses and the role lighthouses have played in several wars. Meet the brave, nefarious, and colorful characters who served as lighthouse keepers and government ove...