[bmcald]

Must add my all time favorites:

The Coast of Summer, by Anthony Bailey--New Yorker writer takes you along for his 30th annual cruise in Long Island Sound/Peconic Bay/Block Island with beautiful detail of the characters and places he and his wife visit

The Compleat Cruiser, by L Francis Herreshoff--practical cruising advise narrated in a dated format but fun for all that

The Magic of the Swatchways, by Maurice Griffiths--wonderful tales of impetuous, marvelous seamanship in shoal draft boats in the Channel and its estuaries by the editor of Yachting Monthly

The Shadow in the Sand, by Sam Llewellyn--worthy sequel to Childers'' Riddle in the Sand with a terrific opening scene of a yacht race with the Kaiser of Germany. Llewellyn has written other fiction with nautical themes and they are all very good reads, a Dick Francis of the high seas.

The Celtic Ring, by Bjorn Larsson--if mystery and intrigue and sailing are your cup of tea, this classic is a must.

The Boat Who Wouldn''t Float, by Farley Mowat--A must for first-time boat buyers and all those obsessed with buying and cruising under sail; here''s the anodyne of laughter for all that can go wrong.

NOTE: Many of the classic sailing narratives that have been out of print are being reissued, with forwards by Jonathan Raban ("Passage to Juneau") in a series called The Sailor''s Classics. This is how I got my hands on Cimba.