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"Taken by the Wind" by Mike Jacker, ("Joliba")

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Here's a marvelous book by a fellow forum member so advanced in age as to remember with entire recall his voyages to the south seas in the mid 1970s aboard a Cal 2-30.

Mike Jacker is a natural storyteller with the (now) extraordinary attributes of attention to detail, research and confirmation, documentation and explanation, and acknowledgement of joy, worry and the uncertainties of travel by small sailboat over vast distances--distances for which few have a ready analog. The Pacific is big and the scale, at five knots, is pure Bill Bryson.

It was a time of kerosene lamps and gas engines and celestial navigation. The skills required to get from here to there were many, especially in a world of shoals and reefs. But the memoir is more than recollection, it's an evocation and an education -- required reading not just for how it was then, but for how it will be leaving the dock tomorrow even with GPS and a satellite phone. The universe is the same as Mike found it, although it's much easier today to yell for help.

I read this before my own recent offshore cruise, and was struck by what Jacker and I share. I grew up with sextants and kerosene and unreliable engines, or no engine at all. Sailing is better now, in the way science makes things better, and AIS alone relieves crews of one nerve-wracking element in the approach to shipping lanes. But the need for experience--and I mean experience gained by reading and planning and humility--is the same.

I was particularly riveted by his approach to Diamond Head and the anticipation of the famous channel between Oahu and Molokai, which often gets worked up in strong trades. It is a wild ride wing and wing, crews are tired, and the landfall rises in the form of a gigantic headland. I approached in 35 knots, with gusts to 40 -- and altered course so as not to go through that alone at night. Mike also experienced the unexpected. Whcih I think must be what offshore sailing is all about--the unexpected.

Good book, with color photographs to envy. Sailing authors who can report and evoke equally well are rare. This joins the classics of the literature.

Oops, already did this. Oh well.

https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/threads/mike-jackers-new-book-forum-member-joliba.18954/
 

goldenstate

Sustaining Member
Blogs Author
Me too:

 

Mike Brockman

Ericson 41
Just finished Taken By The Wind by Mike Jacker. This was a great recommendation. Tried to stretch it out as long as I could didn't want to get to the end.
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
It's holiday time. Here are some more books, after you buy Mike's, worthy of consideration for fellow sailors:



 

nquigley

Sustaining Member
If you're considering reading Slocum's famous book, you might consider first reading Stan Grayson's great book about the whole life of Joshua Slocum:
I just finished Grayson's book, and now, I'm going the read Slocum's book for the first time. Grayson also has a little to say about the various editions/printings of Slocum's book. I bought the Dover edition because it was printed the year I was born ;-)
I really think that reading Grayson's book first will give me a much richer experience reading Slocum's telling of his fantastic story.
I'll report back in a few weeks ;-)
 
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