Gently with the Tides: The Best of Living Aboard [Paperback]

Michael L. Frankel (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1993

At one time or another almost all boaters-and many non-boaters-fantasize about leaving behind the house, lawn, and neighbors and moving aboard a boat. But leaving behind a familiar, comfortable lifestyle for the Perils Of The Sea is a quantum leap, not to be taken lightly. That so few actually make thr break has less to do with the rigors of the lifestyle than the lack of information about what it's really like. Since 1972, Living Aboard Journal has served as an idea exchange for the members of the Homaflote Association-live-aboards from all walks of life spread all around the globe. Fueled by 18 years of the best letters, articles, and firsthand accounts from Living Aboard magazine, Gently With the Tides is a powerful testimonial to the lure and romance of living aboard a boat. It is also a compendium of the pitfalls, disappointments, and setbacks. Most of all, it is a high-octane dream-feeder for liveaboard aspirants. It will help them decide whether to, it will tell them how to, and, most important, it will fill their dreams with why to.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: International Marine Publishing; 1st edition (March 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087742375X
• ISBN-13: 978-0877423751
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #786,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Frankel is a long-time liveaboard and distant ocean sailor with a fondness for the marine environment, self sufficiency at sea, and multi-cultural contacts along the way. He was a past editor of the Living Aboard Journal and a past board member of the Center for Marine Conservation.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful In-depth Look at Living Aboard, November 1, 2001

By 

James Carter (Castro Valley, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gently with the Tides: The Best of Living Aboard (Paperback)

If you are curious about what life aboard may be like, or simply want to live that life from your armchair, pick up this book. It covers everything by relaying stories of normal people who live aboard and have experienced it firsthand.

I had been trying to convince my wife to live aboard for years, but had no way to really show her what it was like until I found this book. I am not saying you will achieve similar results, but she agreed to move aboard shortly after reading the book. We ended up living on an 80 foot motorsailer that was a floating Club Med, but I figured it was at least one step in the right direction.

The book covers everything from the boat, relationships aboard, the lifestyles and even the rights and laws surrounding living aboard, which is more like a three-ring circus with monkeys running the show, at least here in SF.

I highly recommend picking this book up. It is relatively cheap and is a great and comforting read.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sea Beckons Gently, February 5, 2001

By 

"skinwalker" (Englewood, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gently with the Tides: The Best of Living Aboard (Paperback)

There are those of us that "go down to the sea in ships" and others that simply like "messing around in boats", both only an excuse for being on the water. As we immerse ourselves in water- related activities, the cleansing ritual of boating for many becomes obsessive. This obsessiveness often spawns the desire "to cross the final frontier..." not the one in outer space, but at the end of the dock. We want to become a liveaboard so that we too may move "Gently With the Tide".

This is a nice compendium of short essays from those with liveaboard experiences tied together gently with editoral skill.

It is not specifically a "how to" book yet the experiences related certainly provided a liveaboard education. The value of the book to me is the "feel" reading it engenders. The feeling of what it is like to liveaboard.

Read the book. If you like the feeling it leaves you with, you too might be ready to go "Gently With the Tide".

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars countercultural live aboard, November 17, 2006

By 

Scott C. Locklin "Selectos nisi das mihi libe... (Berkeley CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gently with the Tides: The Best of Living Aboard (Paperback)

Interesting collection of articles from a magazine dedicated to the "living aboard" lifestyle of cruising and marina boat life. Gives an invaluable listing of livaboard marinas and how much they cost in the back. All kinds of interesting perspectives on things you wouldn't have noticed until you actually moved aboard; from psychology of families and relationships, to business matters, to marinas to legal rights. Downsides? It's written by people who aren't writers, and so it can be, well, difficult at times. Sort of like reading scrappy people who post long articles on the internet. Really, it reminded me of something published in the 1970s, for people who wished to drop out of society. Sort of a Whole Earth Catalog or Foxfire for people who like boats rather than living in Yurts.