Product Description
Margarita Cat illustrates 40 years of the people and places the author encountered and collected in ship logs and letters while traveling four continents by boat. It will encourage others to discover the freedom and uniqueness of living life on the sea. “Economic disasters and social transformations drive millions to their cliffs like lemmings, but they don't have to jump,” says Van Sant. “An all-time low buyers’ market exists for yachts. That presents a low-cost life alternative, and Margarita Cat documents it.”
Sketches in Margarita Cat include yarns about couples, lonely professionals and retirees who attempt to escape the normalcy of their lives, only to find unlikely marriages and mischief throughout unchartered parts of the South Pacific, Mediterranean and Caribbean.
REVIEWS:
Henry Samson:
"Not just for sailors! . . . This is a charming book of stories and recollections from his years living the sort of life many would like to live . . . The 64 short stories are his unembellished accounts of adventures he experienced during 40 years of traveling the globe, much of the time on his own boat . . . a glimpse into the experiences that make such adventures worthwhile. Not the storms, the passages or the anchorages in some tropical paradise (see his book The Gentleman's Guide to Passages South, or Tricks of the Trades, if that is what you are looking for) but instead the characters and cultures he experienced in a life lived fully.
No lessons on sailing here but perhaps some lessons on living."
William Hezlep, author of "Into the Land of Coconut Dreams" and "Betty's Barge"
". . . a collection of sixty-four short, true, tales gleaned from forty years of the log books of one of the most experienced cruising sailors out there. The stories are short, and while places and characters appear and re-appear from tale to tale, each story stands on its own . . . stories of the people, places, ports, boats, bureaucrats, weather, joys, pleasures, dangers and fears of the cruising life as the author expierenced it over his years of sailing--warts and all. This is a great book for sailors and cruisers, past presant and wannabe, for parrot heads, dreamers, drifters and the secret Walter Mitty in all of us."
Jason L Hoath
"A window on a life few of us can experience . . . a collection of gritty, real-life stories to transport my mind . . . beyond the cocoon of security. I couldn't put it down. If you're looking for sugar coated, multi-culti depictions of quaint and lovely foreigners in untainted paradise, look elsewhere . . . you'll see a lot of truth in this book . . . it can really make you sit back and wonder - what am I doing with my life?"
Pat Banyas
"True stories to change attitudes and latitudes . . . no BS, no punches pulled, short stories from Bruce Van Sant's past experiences which guided Bruce as he wrote 'Gentleman's Guide to Passages South' (his cruising guide which ) doesn't bandy about with political correctness and babying that many want-to-be cruisers want."
Julia Bartlett, author of "Just Another Day in Paradise"
"In 'Margarita Cat' Bruce Van Sant's voice spins his tales as truly as if you were sitting across the table from him in an out of the way rum shop on a white sand beach, sipping a frosty beer . . . a riveting read for old and new salts alike."
Peter Swanson, contributor to Yachting, Soundings and Passagemaker magazines
". . . a unique, often hilarious perspective of what happens when Middle-America decides to escape by sea . . . an oddball classic in a genre of one."
Cruising Guide Publications
"a lovely and indulgent book . . . like a giant love letter to the sea and all those who dare to venture upon her. Bruce Van Sant's Margarita Cat is yet another wonderful example of his literary and epistolary sagacity, whimsy and an ongoing love affair with the written word."
Margarita Cat is available in print at CruisingGuides.com, Amazon.com, ThornlessPath.com and other channels.
Sketches in Margarita Cat include yarns about couples, lonely professionals and retirees who attempt to escape the normalcy of their lives, only to find unlikely marriages and mischief throughout unchartered parts of the South Pacific, Mediterranean and Caribbean.
REVIEWS:
Henry Samson:
"Not just for sailors! . . . This is a charming book of stories and recollections from his years living the sort of life many would like to live . . . The 64 short stories are his unembellished accounts of adventures he experienced during 40 years of traveling the globe, much of the time on his own boat . . . a glimpse into the experiences that make such adventures worthwhile. Not the storms, the passages or the anchorages in some tropical paradise (see his book The Gentleman's Guide to Passages South, or Tricks of the Trades, if that is what you are looking for) but instead the characters and cultures he experienced in a life lived fully.
No lessons on sailing here but perhaps some lessons on living."
William Hezlep, author of "Into the Land of Coconut Dreams" and "Betty's Barge"
". . . a collection of sixty-four short, true, tales gleaned from forty years of the log books of one of the most experienced cruising sailors out there. The stories are short, and while places and characters appear and re-appear from tale to tale, each story stands on its own . . . stories of the people, places, ports, boats, bureaucrats, weather, joys, pleasures, dangers and fears of the cruising life as the author expierenced it over his years of sailing--warts and all. This is a great book for sailors and cruisers, past presant and wannabe, for parrot heads, dreamers, drifters and the secret Walter Mitty in all of us."
Jason L Hoath
"A window on a life few of us can experience . . . a collection of gritty, real-life stories to transport my mind . . . beyond the cocoon of security. I couldn't put it down. If you're looking for sugar coated, multi-culti depictions of quaint and lovely foreigners in untainted paradise, look elsewhere . . . you'll see a lot of truth in this book . . . it can really make you sit back and wonder - what am I doing with my life?"
Pat Banyas
"True stories to change attitudes and latitudes . . . no BS, no punches pulled, short stories from Bruce Van Sant's past experiences which guided Bruce as he wrote 'Gentleman's Guide to Passages South' (his cruising guide which ) doesn't bandy about with political correctness and babying that many want-to-be cruisers want."
Julia Bartlett, author of "Just Another Day in Paradise"
"In 'Margarita Cat' Bruce Van Sant's voice spins his tales as truly as if you were sitting across the table from him in an out of the way rum shop on a white sand beach, sipping a frosty beer . . . a riveting read for old and new salts alike."
Peter Swanson, contributor to Yachting, Soundings and Passagemaker magazines
". . . a unique, often hilarious perspective of what happens when Middle-America decides to escape by sea . . . an oddball classic in a genre of one."
Cruising Guide Publications
"a lovely and indulgent book . . . like a giant love letter to the sea and all those who dare to venture upon her. Bruce Van Sant's Margarita Cat is yet another wonderful example of his literary and epistolary sagacity, whimsy and an ongoing love affair with the written word."
Margarita Cat is available in print at CruisingGuides.com, Amazon.com, ThornlessPath.com and other channels.
