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

by Joe Coomer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
In 1992, novelist Coomer (Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God, LJ 4/15/95) bought a small wooden motorsailer (i.e., a vessel that has both motor and sails). This book is his account of his joys and tribulations with the boat, culminating in his participation in a wooden-boat rendezvous at the Mystic Seaport. Coomer writes very engagingly and includes much about his family, the various cruises he made (mostly in southern Maine), and his quest to search out the boat's succession of previous owners. Needless to say, he is justifiably thrilled when he makes contact with the descendants of the boat's original owner and is rewarded with photographs (which are included in the book). Recommended for libraries with a boating clientele.?Robert F. Greenfield, formerly with Baltimore Cty. P.L., Md.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Sweet but ultimately vapid days spent with novelist Coomer (Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God, 1995, etc.) aboard his wooden motorsailer. Coomer and his wife and children summer in Eliot, Maine, hard by the Piscataqua River estuary. Why not, he figured, buy a boat? Perusing the boating magazines, he found a nifty old wooden vessel for sale, ``twenty-eight feet from plumb bow to plumb transom,'' broad and comfy and with a door for the loo. The boat was christened Yonder, a nod to Coomer's proclaimed (though unsubstantiated) wanderlust, and what follow are recountings of little nautical ventures poking about the Maine coast, its islands and rivers and shoreside curiosities. It is all very lighthearted: On his maiden cruise, Coomer screws up and humiliatingly has to be rescued after his engine fails; he and cronies boat and kill a bluefish in a flawed, mock-heroic event. He interminably dissects the hours spent aboard with his extended family; pays an unhappy visit to Yonder's original boatyard; catalogs the small pleasures of boat life, like when he would ``wake up every morning, wipe the dew from the helm and the instruments, have the engine start on the first crank, and set off into an accepting sea.'' Gradually, a note of boastful self-regard slips into the otherwise amiable narrative. At one point Coomer observes that ``one of my novels sold to a big producer in Hollywood,'' and when his wife suggests that the purchase of Yonder might run ``a lot of money,'' Coomer shoots back, ``Heather, we make a lot of money.'' So light, it melts into air, but the episodes of chest- thumping leave a raw, unwanted patch. (b&w photos) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 255 pages
• Publisher: Pica Books; 1st edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312156464
• ISBN-13: 978-0312156466
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,029,084 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful saga of taking an old wooden boat into one's life, November 14, 1998

By A Customer

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A bittersweet account of a family's boating adventures., October 2, 1998

By A Customer

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coomer does it, again, with grace and style, October 10, 2007

By	William C. Powell "Chris Powell" (Kansas City, Missouri) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.