Book Review: The Voyager’s Handbook

I’ve been doing a lot of reading, both online and in print the last few weeks and I’ve completed my first pass (of what will likely be several passes) through a couple of useful books already.  The first of these books is The Voyager’s Handbook, by Beth A. Leonard, Second Edition.  I have the Kindle Edition which I read on both my iPad and iPhone.  I’ll comment on that later.

At a high level this is a fantastic and very thorough book about what it takes to ready yourself for a long offshore voyage.  Beth’s writing style is very easy to follow and the fictional Simplicity, Moderation, and Highlife boats used a examples throughout the book really make it easy to relate the choices available to your own situation or style.

What this book provides is a guide to selecting a boat and equipment, and provisioning for the voyage.  The information included is vast and there are reference tables galore throughout the book to help with planning meals, food, and refitting the boat.  For my planning, after reading it cover to cover the first time, I’ll use each section and table as a reference as I go through the process of boat selection, refit, provisioning, etc over the next few years.

• It is the use as a reference where the Kindle Edition poses a slight problem.  It would be MUCH easier to put a sticky on the various pages of a printed book, or possibly photocopy the tables onto single sheets into a notebook, than haul around my iPad and search through Kindle Bookmarks every time I wanted to find something specific.  And reading it on an iPhone is actually a bit confusing.  I know the iPad is better for layout but at night if I’m reading before going to bed, the iPhone is much easier to handle.  I’m not sure if a true Kindle device would be better than the iPhone, it might be.  The reason the iPhone is confusing is because for some reason the images and charts don’t get put in the correct location within the text.  And when there are subsections (i.e.: boxes with a side story) those get mixed in with the rest of the text and you don’t really realize that the context has changed.  If I was to do it over again, I’d get the paperback or hardcover version of the book.  What I’d really like is if Amazon, B&N, and Apple would bundle a Kindle Edition with the printed book, then you could have the best of both worlds.

I also wanted to point out that the sections in this book on preparing for weather and dealing with weather conditions was also very helpful.

If you are looking for help with making decisions about routes and destinations, that is one thing The Voyagers Handbook does not really cover.

All in all a great reference for someone preparing for a voyage across any ocean.  Buy it in print and keep it on your boat.

Following this book, I completed reading The Pacific Crossing Guide, and am currently reading Live on the Margin, both of which I’ll cover in future reviews.