Customer Reviews

Sailing in a Spoonful of Water: A Landlubber's Education on a Vintage Wooden Boat

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I found Joe Coomer's story of the acquisition of an old wooden boat, and the things he learns about it, and his life, and his family members, to be a very endearing tale. Maybe it is because I am a frustrated landlubber who has yet to have the courage, or moment of irrationality, to buy my own similar boat. By reading his account, I feel I have experienced many of things I might have expected. From that early uncertainty of the boat's seaworthiness and doubt about his own seamanship skills, to a point four seasons later when he is leaving the dock, "and we caught the outgoing current as if we were swinging onto a moving bus". Coomer is at times factual and analytical in recounting the specifics of his encounter with his motorsailer Yonder. At others, he captures in a phrase or two the beauty and wonder of a special moment at sea. After an unexpected rendesvouz with some gray whales in the fog, "my wife and I silently scanned the ocean, like children looking across the backyard one last time before letting Easter go". I highly recommend this book for anyone wishing to vicariously live the adventure of owning their own old wooden boat.

Although this book is humorous, as its title suggests, it also is a story of the passing on of a heritage of boating from generation to generation.The author artfully combines an account of his adventures aboard a less-than-bristol, fifty-year-old wooden motorsailer, with memories about boating from his childhood. In the end, the boat has become so intertwined with his family life that he cannot abandon it even when it requires repairs that cannot be justified by its market value. The book is sentimental, funny, wise and very well written.

Actually, I have just finished all of Coomer's works and have been a rabid fan since day One. However, Sailing in a Spoonful of Water touched my heart and soul. I too am bitten by the restoration of a boat and mine is currently in Damariscotta, Maine. When he touches our hearts with stories of his grandfather and father, it makes me relive the lives of both of mine who have passed, but how I wish they could be a part of my boat project. As he writes, you can smell the oil and diesel grime on your fingers. You can smell the salt air and even the smell of the fog as it rolls over the ocean. You can feel the swells from miles of crossing the Atlantic and even feel the sun on your face as you read each page! Mr. Coomer writes in his OWN style...a style that makes me tell people that I even enjoy the sentence structure with which he writes. He is one of the best writers of our times and I wish I could tell more people to enjoy their hallucination as well as I have enjoyed mine! Thank you as always Joe Coomer.

We are boaters, not especially sailors, but have restored
and love old wooden boats. But even if these were not interests, would've enjoyed this writer's work since it's well written and also about family.