Product Description
The New England coast, a small cruising sloop, warm winds--and Anthony Bailey's seductive storytelling powers. An account of a season afloat and an autobiography of half a lifetime spent sailing New England waters.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 6 reviews)

Crusing Guide

I first read this book from a copy obtained from the local public library. I was so impressed I bought one. It is a beautiful description of one man's sailing adventures of the New England Coast in the summer of 1992. I bought it primarilly as a cruising guide to the all the places I intend to explore with my own sailboat.
April 11, 2007

A Dream of Coastal Cruising

Long Island Sound and the south coast of New England--City Island in New York City to Martha's Vinyard and Nantucket and then the north shore of Cape Cod is one of the finest sailboat cruising grounds in the world. This area is replete with coves, quaint villages, rivers, islands, and a vast number of harbors and anchorages all different and interesting. Anthony Bailey writes an informative and charming description of a summer cruising the eastern sections, from Shelter Island to Provincetown. For anyone who is interested in or contemplating taking up coastal cruising Bailey's book is a dream of the way coastal cruising could and can be. Bailey cruises sometimes singlehanded, but mostly with his wife Margot. They are serious and dedicated sailors, cruisers, and enjoyers of people and the outdoors. I have cruised many of these same areas and thoroughly enjoyed revisiting them vicariously with Bailey. Bailey is a fine writer, with a modest and friendly voice. This material could easily have been unexciting and tedious in less skilled authorial hands. Bailey brings it lovingly to life.

The Coast of Summer is part informal cruising guide, part "log of our journey," and part dreamy reminiscing. Unlike some cruising guides, Bailey's is very much focused on people. Some sailors have a girl in every port--Bailey has a friend in every port, and we learn much about them. Bailey is British but partly grew up on Cape Cod and lived for years in Stonington, Connecticut while he worked for the New Yorker magazine. He seems to know an endless number of the rich and famous (and eccentric) who summer along the New England coast and he and Margot are happy to be entertained by one or another of them in most every destination on his cruise.

Although The Coast of Summer is one of my favorite and most enjoyed sailing books (and I've read many), I must nevertheless enter some qualms. For one thing, this book tends to breed resentment, at least in my puny soul. Bailey spends three quarters of the year living in London, and then July, August, and part of September cruising New England in his sailboat. Hmmm. What a nice life! I've also already mentioned his many aristocratic and intellectual friends--probably from his New Yorker days. And if you or I wrote a manuscript about our summer cruise, no matter how charming and informative, I bet we could not get it published. But Bailey can! Why? One surmises it's his New Yorker connections again.

OK. Enough of these cranky thoughts. I still have other more serious qualms. Bailey enters disclaimers about treating his tale as a cruising guide and I'm inclined to agree. For one thing the book is dated. Much has changed since he wrote it (but some things never change). I also question some of his boating methods. He and Margot cruise without a bimini. I consider a bimini essential protection from the Sun. Do not cruise anywhere south of the Arctic without a bimini. His auxiliary engine is gasoline rather than diesel. Diesel is much safer. Furthermore Bailey is unwilling to use his engine except in the most dire of circumstances. This can be a danger to oneself and others. We sailors rely on our engines when the wind dies and to get us out of tight spots. To compulsively insist on keeping the engine off, as Bailey does, even in dodgy situations is unwise and in my opinion unseamanlike.

But for his joy in sailing, his love of anchoring in remote spots and enjoying the peace and calm (what we cruisers call "gunkholing"), for his friendship and conviviality, for his treading softly and easily--Bailey is to be learned from and prized.

I recommend this book highly to anyone who is interested in coastal sailboat cruising, especially in Long Island Sound and New England.
February 18, 2007

Dated, but entertaining

With a title like "Sailing New England Waters from Shelter Island to Cape Cod" one expects a practical sailing advice on sailing the said waters. Well, this book doesn't do much in the department of practicality or advice, and I am still looking for a good guide on New England cruising.

Other than that, the book is quite enjoyable and makes a wonderful winter read, much recommended.
October 23, 2005

The Coast of Summer

This delightful account of a summer of sailing along the Southern New England coast is a must-read for any cruising sailor or sailor wannabe. It is the story of the normal events of coastal cruising, from anchoring to meeting old friends ashore, from monitoring the weather to cooking on board, told in a prose which flows as easily as the tides. The personal memories and reflections, and the historical notes on the many harbors along the route, are as thoroughly engrossing as the 80-foot waves, pirates, and seamonsters of most adventure books. Perhaps it is the reality of planning such a cruise for yourself that makes the book even more captivating than the more unlikely tales of life-threatening ordeals in violent seas. This book informs, entertains, and gratifies almost as well as the sea, itself.
April 18, 2001

Best book on the area

I am now reading this book for the 4th time. You easly place yourself rght in the cockpit with them. Going day to day, harbor to harbor. A must read !!!!!
August 30, 2000

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