Rescue in the Pacific: A True Story of Disaster and Survival in a Force 12 Storm


Book Description

In June of 1994 a dangerous "bomb" storm caught dozens of cruising sailors by surprise as they voyaged north from New Zealand. This is the true story of how nine yachts struggled to survive the hurricane-like conditions. Boats were battered by fierce winds and capsized by seas towering well over 50 feet high. Equipment was ripped loose, and water penetrated every weak point. Masts collapsed, rudders broke, and sailors lost steering control when they needed it most. The crews coped as best they could with injury, fear, exhaustion, and illness. Their electronic calls for help were picked up by satellites and radio operators, who initiated a massive air and sea search. This is the story of heroic rescues, human endurance, and tragic loss.




Flight of the Osprey


Book Description

After raising their son and daughter, Kurt and PL Mondloch decide to circumnavigate the world aboard their sloop, the Osprey. As they prepare for their voyage in San Francisco, they receive a disturbing message. Their son, on a backpacking expedition in India, has gone missing. Kurt flies to the Indian Himalayas to try and find him, sparking a major international investigation and dragging the family into a world they never imagined. Eventually an overseas phone call destroys the couple's fragile cocoon of hope-their son and his girlfriend were swept away by a monsoon-swollen river. Reeling from the death of their son, Kurt and PL must make a choice: either mourn endlessly or move on with life. The couple decides to sail around the world as a balm for their spirits and as a tribute to their late son. Over the course of almost seven years and an incredible journey of 40,000 miles, their phenomenal memories and fresh horizons help extinguish the pain and recharge their lives.




After the Storm


Book Description

An exploration of loss and survival by one of America's finest nautical writers After the Storm is John Rousmaniere's most ambitious work ever, the unique expression of a master storyteller and authority on seamanship who has survived storms at sea. Each of the book's stories of seafaring disaster­­many little known, all exciting and of deep human interest­­presents a broad human drama. Rousmaniere tells of the hopes and choices that put these sailors in harm's way. He takes readers into the gales themselves with authoritative knowledge of horrific weather and the split-second decisions that seamen must make. Finally, he explores the consequences of these disasters for survivors, rescuers, families, communities, and in some cases nations. The pursuit of these elusive strands leads the reader deep into our ambivalent relationship with the sea as both "destroyer and preserver."




Forthcoming Books


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The Reader's Digest


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The Woodenboat


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438 Days


Book Description

The miraculous account of the man who survived alone and adrift at sea longer than anyone in recorded history. For fourteen months, Alvarenga survived constant shark attacks. He learned to catch fish with his bare hands. He built a fish net from a pair of empty plastic bottles. Taking apart the outboard motor, he fashioned a huge fishhook. Using fish vertebrae as needles, he stitched together his own clothes. Based on dozens of hours of interviews with Alvarenga and interviews with his colleagues, search and rescue officials, the medical team that saved his life and the remote islanders who nursed him back to health, this is an epic tale of survival. Print run 75,000.




Halsey's Typhoon


Book Description

In the tradition of "The Perfect Storm" and "Flags of Our Fathers," this work chronicles the epic tale of men clashing against the ruthless forces of war and nature--a gripping true story of courage and survival against impossible odds and one of the greatest World War II sagas of our time.