New book on cruising the Inside Passage in a small boat

[NewMoon]

As some TugNuts may know, Cindy and I have been cruising in our own little boats, small enough to keep on a trailer here in Utah, for 18 years now. Our first was a 1991 C-Dory 22, our intrepid cruiser for 7 years of explorations. For the last 11 years we’ve traveled in a 26-foot diesel boat.

We’ve been all over the Inside Passage of the Pacific Northwest, just about everywhere from the San Juan Islands up to Glacier Bay in Southeast Alaska. Over the years we’ve picked quite a bit of experience in what it takes to travel those beautiful but remote and wild waters in a small boat, and have a fine time doing it. That’s what the book is all about.

If you’ve ever considered traveling the Inside Passage, you might find it interesting. If small boats are your thing, the book is a primer on how you too could do such a major cruise.

A fair portion of the book is devoted to choosing and equipping the right boat. If you already have a Ranger Tug, or a C-Dory Cruiser, Venture, or TomCat, you’ve got the right boat part done. But there’s also a bunch of info on equipping it well for an extended Inside Passage cruise, challenges you’ll encounter along the way, key skills you’ll need, and other tips from our experience. Plus a bunch of links to helpful stuff.

If you’d like to take a look, a 28-page preview is available on the self-publishing web site Lulu.com:

http://www.lulu.com/browse/preview.php?fCID=5835870

You can also find it on Lulu by searching for its title, “Cruising in a Big Way”, or for “Richard Cook”, or for various keywords like “Coastal Cruising”.

It’s available for purchase in paperback, or even as a download. Hope you like it.

P.S. Since I’m self-publishing, I sure would appreciate help getting the word out. If you like what you see, you might want to forward this on to others.

 

[norbhat]

New Moon, I just read the 30 pages and have ordered your book. It looks spectacular. Very readable. It's confirming the plans we are making. Thanks.

Norb
Two If By Sea
Planning to begin a three-month Inside Passage June 1

 

[johnniethek]

Richard,

I just ordered your book, too, and am eager to read it. And I don't even have a boat that I could take up the Inside Passage!

But it's never too early to plan such a venture, or at least dream and scheme about it!

Cheers,

John

 

[NewMoon]

Thanks, guys!

 

[JTREV]

Richard,

I ordered your book when I first read this post and received an email yesterday from lulu saying that it just shipped - can't wait to read it!

John

 

[walldog]

Thanks, guys!

Well, I ordered it as a download and read it already...grins....great book. We took our motorhome to Alaska in 2006, spent several days in Skagway and took the Catamaran to Juneau. Fantastic scenery sure hope we get to float some of those waters as we did the roads in our motorhome.

Walldog aka Herb, Ranger Tug wannabe.

 

[KentSidel]

Just bought the book at LuLu but could not find the download button. I live on the Arabian Gulf in Abu Dhabi so really need the electronic copy. Am I missing a button to download? Or is download not possible? Kent Sidel, Abu Dhabi

 

[NewMoon]

Hi Kent,

Lulu's web site is confusing at times, for sure. Here's a link which points to options of either the paperback or the download.

http://www.lulu.com/content/5835870

 

[johnniethek]

Hi Richard,

Just a quick note to say that I thoroughly enjoyed your book. I have read it once, and am about two-thirds of the way through my second read.

I don't expect to make the Inside Passage trip for another couple of years, but I expect to have your book committed to memory by then -- and definitely plan to have it aboard when I make that once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Thanks for a job well done.

John

 

[NewMoon]

Thanks, John!

I'm delighted you like it. Hope it turns out to be of some use to you.

I must need some more practice, or at least another dose of wild and beautiful country - in a few more days New Moon will be off to Alaska for the summer.

 

[johnniethek]

This time take your video camera and employ some visual storytelling that will captivate (and capture) more readers of your book.

Fair winds and safe travels,

J

 

[NewMoon]

For those of you who like to read via Kindle:

You might be interested to know that my book can now be loaded onto and read on the newer Kindles, the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX, provided they have the latest software installed (it just came out a week or so ago).

Amazon is rolling out the software update over the next few weeks to the new Kindles, but if you want it sooner it’s easy to install by downloading from the ManageYourKindle page on Amazon.com.

You can have the book on your Kindle by ordering a download from Lulu.com (for $9.95) rather than a physical book. Copy the PDF file you receive from Lulu into your Kindle’s documents library, and voila – it’s available to read without any conversion, thanks to a version of Adobe Reader that comes with the latest Kindle software. Apparently most (all?) PDF’s can now be read natively.

It displays one page at a time in the Kindle screen, so the type is fairly small, but you can change the page orientation to landscape if you want a larger font. I’ve tried bookmarks and searching, and these functions do work.

I’m not sure when it will be available from the Kindle store as a standard Kindle book.

 

[BILLR]

Richard,
I am new to this site but have always been fasinated with cruising the San Juan's.
We did a 1 week charter with AYC a few years ago and that really whetted our appetite.
We are planning on retiring next year and hopefully can do a longer trip.
We don't own a boat at this time but are looking and the Ranger R25 looks like it would work very well.
Just ordered your book and can't wait to read it.
Bill