Water Travel

A true story of courage and survival, South to Alaska carries listeners from the heartland of America to the last frontier... the hard way. Born in the dusty heart of Oklahoma in 1916, 10-year-old Melvin sees a photograph of a cabin in the Alaska wilderness in his fourth-grade geography book and dreams of living there. Nearly 50 years later he builds a 47-foot boat in his Arkansas backyard, launches it on the Arkansas River, and cruises 10,000 miles to Alaska by way of the Panama Canal. Melvin has never been south of the United States/Mexico border.

Science magazine describes the Pascagoula River of southeast Mississippi as the last unaltered large river system in the lower 48 states and southern Canada. Along its banks and watershed, 600,000 acres of public lands - wildlife management areas, national forest, wilderness areas, national wildlife refuges, Nature Conservancy preserves - ensure the creation of a tremendous natural river system.

Most people at some point long to escape - from the weather, the commute, the routine. Sailing off in a 40-foot boat called Voyager comes at a price, however. Indeed, for David and Sandra Clayton it meant selling their house and possessions with a lifetime's collection of memories and emotions attached to them. But the result proved life-enhancing. With her eye for detail and vivid descriptions, Sandra carries the listener with her through some of the Mediterranean's loveliest islands.

A Speck on the Sea chronicles the greatest ocean voyages attempted in the littlest boats.

Boat Girl is the heartbreaking memoir of growing up aboard a sailboat. Throughout the 1980's and 90's, Melanie's family lived aboard a 47-foot sailboat, spending their summers along the US East Coast and their winters in the Bahamas. But the cruising life was not all fun in the sun. The family had to work hard to pay for their way of life. They dodged hurricanes, overzealous federal agents and bullying land-kids. And they endured a boatload of family drama.

Helen Olson and her husband, Elmer, retired in their late forties to sail the Pacific Ocean and Oceania from 1979-1989 on a fifty-foot yacht they built themselves. "Sailing Elysium" is a personal account of that ten-year adventure, as they immersed themselves in the cultures and traditions of the local people, venturing to twenty-seven major stay-overs in twenty-one countries.

Thirteen-year-old Sam Every has traveled back in time to the Golden Age of Piracy to face Captain Slayer, master of the dark arts. Deceived into handing Slayer the ultimate weapon, the Sword of ZelKar, Sam has lost his hands, sliced off in his first clash with the evil pirate. But all is not lost. Sam’s friends have found their way back in time, and with the help of the pirate hunter Benjamin Hornigold have rescued him from the island where Slayer marooned him. Now, Sam must rise above his injuries and find the strength to again face Slayer before it is too late.

Segeln ist eine einzigartige Art zu reisen. Vor allem, wenn es an das Ende der Ostsee geht: Ganz im Norden liegt die kleine Stadt Haparanda zwischen Schweden und Finnland. Das Buch ist ein spannender Reisebericht für Segler, aber auch für Fans von abenteuerlichen Reisen und Skandinavien.

An eclectic mix of exciting stories every surfer will love. This eclectic mix has something for everyone, from classic tales of monster waves and epic battles to stories of when life among the breakers goes wrong. There are accounts of death and disaster, as well as bravery and triumph. The bizarre and the extreme rub shoulders with perfect breaks and beautiful beaches. Be thrilled by legendary surfers like Laird Hamilton and Shane Dorian as well as learning about local heroes who never made the headlines.

Solo circumnavigation of the globe. Fewer than 300 sailors in history have accomplished it, less than the number of people who have climbed Mt. Everest, or even those who have gone to space. In 1990, Istvan Kopar set out to earn his place among this elite fraternity - and to do so with only one stop.

Feel the adrenaline rush as Dave Norell plunges over huge waterfalls, gets lost in the Philippine jungles, and experiences carnage in Costa Rica. In need of medical attention, Dave and his extreme kayaking friends trudge through waist-high sugar cane fields full of poisonous snakes, in search of a road that hasn't been washed out by recent flood-waters. Dave and fellow kayakers travel throughout Idaho, British Columbia, other parts of Canada and the US in their quest for whitewater adventure.

Interwoven with legends and lore, this story chronicles one man's adventure on Lake Superior, one of the world's most dangerous bodies of water.

Beginning in the 1960s, this audiobook tells of the real-life adventures of the author as a boy. Encouraged by his parents to become more independent, Peter decided to see how far he could get in his family's small open dinghy, Calypso.

Tourists visit popular islands of the Caribbean by the planeload. What they don't see from their resort hotels are the hundreds of out-of-the-way, uninhabited islands sprinkled along the West Indies, from Florida to South America. This alluring archipelago, strung with beaches accessible only by boat but spaced temptingly close together, led Mississippi adventurer Scott B. Williams to embark upon an open-ended quest to see how far south he could go in a 17-foot sea kayak.

Proving that sailing is not just the husband's pursuit, this charming narrative of one couple's first long distance voyage is told from the wife's perspective. Writing in a lively, humorous way, Sandra Clayton gives an entertaining account of her and husband David's maiden cruise from the UK, down the Atlantic coast and into the warm waters of the Mediterranean. Conscious that old age or poor health could prevent them from sailing away for much longer, they left the world of work behind to chase their dream of adventure.

After exploring the Eastern Caribbean for several years on their 34-foot Creekmore, Connie McBride, her husband, and their 16-year-old son sailed away from their adopted home of St. Croix, west across the Caribbean to Bocas del Toro, Panama. What they found there will delight the reader as the archipelago comes alive in Eurisko Sails West: A Year in Panama. Howler monkeys, red frogs, and sloths in the jungle are accompanied by a symphony of parrots, oro pendula, toucans, and macaws.

As a journalist for the Independent, Emma Bamford is swept along with the London rat race, lost amongst the egos of Fleet Street. Surrounded by budget cuts and bullies, the thrill of a breaking news story is no longer enough. And at 31, still struggling to get to a fourth date and surrounded by friends settling down to married life and babies, Emma decides to grasp her life by the roots and reclaim her freedom...by running away to sea and joining a complete stranger (and his cat) on a yacht in Borneo.

In the late 1990s, John Pollack was working as a Washington speechwriter when, frustrated by the cynicism and hypocrisy on Capitol Hill, he quit his job to pursue a boyhood dream: to build a boat made entirely of wine corks and take it on an epic journey. Cork Boat tells the story of Pollack's improbable quest. Overcoming one obstacle after another, he convinces skeptical bartenders to save their corks, corrals a brilliant but disorganized partner, and eventually cajoles more than one hundred volunteers who help build the boat until their fingers bleed.

The Last River: The Tragic Race for Shangri-la is a breathtaking account of the ill-fated October 1998 expedition of an American whitewater kayaking team who traveled deep into the Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet to run the Yarlung Tsangpo, known in paddling circles as the "Everest of rivers." For Wick Walker and Tom McEwan, extreme whitewater pioneers, best friends, and trip leaders, the Tsangpo adventure was the culmination of a twenty-five-year quest for glory. Yet the team's magnificent dreams crumbled when their ace paddler was swept over a thunderous eight-foot waterfall, never to be seen again.

Named one of Time Magazine International's 30 most important people of 2005, Maud Fontenoy presents us with a terrific, entertaining adventure story on the high seas as she challenges the Pacific Ocean - a feat no woman before her ever accomplished. Already the first woman to row alone across the North Atlantic, Maud raised the bar to defy the elements, the daunting solitude, and the circling sharks of the South Pacific on her second solo voyage.