Mingming and the Art of Minimal Ocean Sailing


Book Description

The book covers three extraordinary voyages in the tiny yacht Mingming, carrying on from where Voyages of a Simple Sailor left off.




Voyages of a Simple Sailor


Book Description

This book is a distillation of over 50 years of sailing experience, describing small-boat voyaging from a unique and deeply considered perspective.




Mingming and the Tonic of Wildness


Book Description

In his third book singlehanded sailor Roger Taylor ventures to even more remote seas aboard his tiny junk-rigged yacht Mingming. The first voyage, across the North Atlantic to Baffin Island, is curtailed when Taylor is injured in a storm in the Davis Strait. Unwilling to sail on into the ice with a broken rib, he turns round and re-crosses the Atlantic to Plymouth, completing a non-stop voyage of over 4000 miles. The second voyage takes the reader to Jan Mayen, Spitsbergen and on to 80 North, virtually as close as it is possible to sail to the North Pole. During these two voyages Taylor spends well over four months at sea, observing and reflecting on the sea itself, its wildlife, its attraction, and man's uneasy relationship with it.




Mingming II & the Impossible Voyage


Book Description

Far to the north of Russia, across the cold waters of the Barents Sea, lies the desolate archipelago known as Franz Josef Land.







Celestial Navigation


Book Description

This manual has grown out of all the courses given by Dominique Prinet, a certified Instructor-Evaluator for Sail Canada who has been teaching celestial navigation since 2000. It has benefitted from the thoughtful contributions of over 100 students. The aim of Celestial Navigation is to give a sufficient grounding in the subject to determine position at sea using a sextant for fixes on the sun, moon, stars and planets. Furthermore, the material presented will prepare a reader who wishes to pursue a Celestial Navigation Certificate through self-study. The subject requires some comfort with the basic concepts of navigation, but the prospective navigator only needs to know how to add and subtract either times or angles. Lucid and well-paced, Celestial Navigation starts with fundamentals and definitions which ensure that a motivated student need not bring anything more to the table than his or her willingness to master the subject. Richly illustrated, it includes a chapter with more than forty pages of review exercises covering all topics. The cleverness of many of the concepts, explained here, will bring about great intellectual joy and satisfaction. Whether you are a recreational sailor or an individual pursuing professional certification as a navigator, Celestial Navigation will teach you what you need to know.




The Constitution of Algorithms


Book Description

A laboratory study that investigates how algorithms come into existence. Algorithms--often associated with the terms big data, machine learning, or artificial intelligence--underlie the technologies we use every day, and disputes over the consequences, actual or potential, of new algorithms arise regularly. In this book, Florian Jaton offers a new way to study computerized methods, providing an account of where algorithms come from and how they are constituted, investigating the practical activities by which algorithms are progressively assembled rather than what they may suggest or require once they are assembled.




High Latitude Sailing


Book Description

Sailing in cold waters is challenging, but hugely rewarding. And when you venture into the high latitudes you find yourself in some of the world's last real wildernesses. In recent years climate change has made these regions more accessible to small boats, and it is now possible to venture further afield in search of adventure. With practical advice, stunning photography and first-hand accounts of voyages from world-renowned experts, this book offers hard-won wisdom on all aspects of sailing in cold waters: · Preparing yourself: good routines, assessing risk and preparing your crew · Preparing your boat: design, heating, engine, steering, anchors and electrics · Sailing in ice: instrumentation, charts, and what to do when you get stuck · Safety: MOB, polar bears, glaciers and dinghy procedure · Communication: VHF, satellite and SSB · Weather: interpreting GRIB files and reading ice charts · Anchoring and mooring: types and numbers of anchors and mooring lines · Clothes: hiking and skiwear; the three-layer principle · Cruising areas: Svalbard, Antarctica, South Georgia and many more Whether it's tackling the North-West Passage aboard your own yacht or a more modest voyage, heading to Antarctica or keeping your boat in the water for the quieter and often more beautiful winter season, this book is essential reading for all sailors preparing for enjoyable and safe sailing in cold waters.




On Gold Mountain


Book Description

When she was a girl, Lisa See spent summers in the cool, dark recesses of her family`s antiques store in Los Angeles' Chinatown. There, her grandmother and great-aunt told her intriguing, colourful stories about their family`s past - stories of missionaries, concubines, tong wars, glamorous nightclubs, and the determined struggle to triumph over racist laws and discrimination. They spoke of how Lisa`s great-great-grandfather emigrated from his Chinese village to the United States, and how his son followed him. As an adult, See spent fives years collecting the details of her family`s remarkable history. She interviewd nearly one hundred relatives and pored over documents at the National Archives, the immigration office, and in countless attics, basements, and closets for the initmate nuances of her ancestors` lives. The result is a vivid, sweeping family portriat that is att once particular and universal, telling the story not only of one family, but of the Chinese people in America - and of America itself, a country that both welcomes and reviles its immigrants like no other culture in the world.




Travels Through a Window


Book Description

In his sixth book, singlehanded sailor Roger Taylor stays ashore and turns his gaze towards the rugged Scottish landscape and rich wildlife visible through his loch-side window. Written as a kind of cosmic travelogue, the book reconciles the bleakness and beauty of the human condition.