Seraffyn's European Adventure [Paperback]

Lin Pardey (Author), Larry Pardey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2010

With this edition of Seraffyn's European Adventure, all four of the Pardey's classic Seraffyn tales are available in affordable paperback.Join Lin and Larry while they winter in England working to pay for the next leg of their journey into the Baltic, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany. They dealt with armed guards on the Polish waterfront who watched while the people greeted them with flowers and fruit. They weathered a fierce mast-under broach in a Baltic gale.This story ends at the gateway to the Mediterranean to be continued in Seraffyn's Mediterranean Adventure.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Europe gave Lin and Larry a warm and civilized welcome, and they responded with keen appreciation and observation...They had, or else took, the time to fit into local environments, talk to local people, and reflect on what they saw. The result is a travel and cruising book above the average. -- Lloyds List, London, 1985

If we had waited until we could afford a 45-foot yacht and all its luxuries, we might never have gone cruising, the Pardeys explain. They certainly prove that one need not be wealthy to see the world. The book shows their optimism, endurance, and resourcefulness. As they sum up, The whole idea is freedom. Go small, go simple, go now. -- Carolyn Rustemeyer, Cruising World Magazine, 1987

Lin Pardey has ..... in her deceptively simple and fresh-faced style, told the story of an unusual and appealing marriage partnership, a special way of life. Yachtsmen will enjoy the technical description of the problems of maneuvering in the tight harbors and unmapped channels.... the perils of heavy seas in a small boat. But what is remarkable is that she can draw a nonsailor into these special subjects and make them as comprehensible and absorbing to a landlubber as they would be to someone about to set out on the same itinerary in a small boat of his own. -- R Sokolov, New York Times Book Review, 1984

From the Author

Lin and Larry Pardey have voyaged together for over 26 years, covering the equivalent of 5 circumnavigations on board their own self-built cutters, Seraffyn and Taleisin. Larry worked as first mate on a 140-ton, 85-foot schooner, Double Eagle, voyaging from Newport Beach, California, to Hawaii and back and along the Mexican coast before meeting Lin. He, along with Leslie Dyball, won the handicap prize for first overall in the exceptionally stormy 1974 Round Britain two-handed race. Lin and Larry have delivered two dozen boats across oceans and raced their own and others boats. Their interest in storm tactics has led them to research both older and modern methods of heaving-to, by talking and corresponding with sailors from dozens of countries, by working with Victor Shane at the Drag Device Data Base, and by testing both on their own boat in hurricane-force winds and on modern boats off the Cape of Storms, in South Africa.

Larry was selected as the winner of the International Oceanic Award, givenby the Royal Institute of Navigation under the sponsorship of the Little Ship Club of London and presented by Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, for the most meritorious voyage of over 2,000 miles using traditional methods of navigation. Larrys award was for 30 years of successful voyaging, covering more than 150,000 miles on 21 different vessels and using onlysextant and chronometer, including his 2,840 mile voyage in 1995 from Fernancdo do Noronha to Horta, in the Azores.

In March 1996, Lin was presented with the Ocean Cruising Club Award for the person who has done the most to foster and encourage ocean cruising in small craft and the practice of seamanship and navigation in all branches, at the Royal Thames Yacht Club, in London.

Articles by Lin and Larry have appeared in Sail Magazine, Cruising World, Woodenboat (USA) Practical Boat Owner, Yachting Monthly, Classic Boat Magazine (UK), Cruising Helmsman (Australia), South African Yachting, and Nautica (Brazil).

Their nine books have been published in both the United States and England; two have been translated into German and Japanese. Lin and Larry are currently writing a new book, The Cost Conscious Cruiser. Their most recent voyage took them to Scotland and Norway, and Taleisin is ready for another voyage, either west or north in the spring of 1998.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Pardey Books; Revised edition (January 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964603640
• ISBN-13: 978-0964603646
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,001,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable, quick, read, October 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Seraffyn's European Adventure (Paperback)

This is the second of 4 books in the Pardey's Serrafyn series which describes their many year wanderings around the world on their small wooden sailboat. Both my wife and I read the first ("Cruising with Seraffyn") and had to pick up this next volume. The Pardeys have a very easy and relaxed writing style. Reading these books makes you feel like you are friends with them and enjoying the ride vicariously. They are enjoyable for the both the real and armchair sailor alike.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars as much fun as their first book, September 23, 2009

By 

offshore "Chris" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seraffyn's European Adventure (Paperback)

The Seraffyn series is addictive. Not only is it enjoyable reading, but I learned a lot about sailing. Best of all, I felt like I was being invited into the lives of the authors. Even learned a bit of history and geography along the way.Cruising has No Limits

5.0 out of 5 stars The 2nd and the best!, January 10, 2011

By 

Reinhard Grossmann (Nuremberg, Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Seraffyn's European Adventure (Paperback)

The second volume of a total of four. I wrote for the first adventure ("Cruising with S...") that I never read anything better. The Pardeys proof me wrong. Seraffyn's (and her crew's) meandering in both the North Sea and the Baltic Sea are written so vividly, you cannot drop the book until you'll have read the last page, and you're longing for more.

You just started to read in English? You want to improve your language skills by means of reading? Seraffyn's Adventures as first rate course books.

Apart from the issues of seamanship or conjugal life you conjure up the ghosts of the cold-war years, and of wonderful friendship across borders and cultures. Although the Mediterranean and Oriental Adventures are a similar delight to devour, this European Adventure is for me the first amongst equals.