Starboard

Nicola Skinner's inventive, funny, surprising prose once again tells an honest story of big emotions, making Starboard the perfect follow-up to the critically acclaimed Storm. Kirsten Bramble is too famous to have friends. That’s what she tells herself, anyway—but with the end of her hit reality TV show barreling toward her, Kirsten’s not sure she’s ready to say goodbye to her lonely life of fame. Luckily—or unluckily—Kirsten can’t help being plunged headfirst into a new adventure when she’s dragged on a class trip to visit the SS Great Britain. Because somehow, the ancient ship can speak to her—and she wants Kirsten to be her new captain. The ship pulls out of the harbor with no sails and no working engine, and try as Kirsten might, she can’t convince the ship to turn back until they find a way to help her finish her final quest. Kirsten doesn’t feel like a captain—but along the way, she may just realize that the ending of an adventure, while scary, can be just as special as the beginning.

"A rich, quietly artful novel that is bound for deep water, with questions of beauty, power and spiritual navigation as its main concerns. The title refers not to the right side of a boat but to the right course through life, and the immense difficulty of finding and following it."--Janet Maslin, The New York Times A powerful first novel about life and death, friendship and love, as one young man must navigate the depths of his emotions. JASON PROSPER grew up in the elite world of Manhattan penthouses, Maine summer estates, old-boy prep schools, and exclusive sailing clubs. A smart, athletic teenager, Jason maintains a healthy, humorous disdain for the trappings of affluence, preferring to spend afternoons sailing with Cal, his best friend and boarding-school roommate. When Cal commits suicide during their junior year at Kensington Prep, Jason is devastated by the loss and transfers to Bellingham Academy. There, he meets Aidan, a fellow student with her own troubled past. They embark on a tender, awkward, deeply emotional relationship. When a major hurricane hits the New England coast, the destruction it causes brings with it another upheaval in Jason's life, forcing him to make sense of a terrible secret that has been buried by the boys he considers his friends. Set against the backdrop of the 1987 stock market collapse, The Starboard Sea is an examination of the abuses of class privilege, the mutability of sexual desire, the thrill and risk of competitive sailing, and the adult cost of teenage recklessness. It is a powerful and provocative novel about a young man finding his moral center, trying to forgive himself, and accepting the gift of love.

The Author's naval war experiences make the most exciting reading. After being mined on the battleship Nelson in 1939, he served on the Prince of Wales, during the Bismarck action, witnessing the sinking of the Hood and Churchill and Roosevelt's historic meeting. He survived the disastrous sinking by Japanese dive-bombing in December 1941 but within two days of reaching Singapore, the Island fell. Evacuated in a coastal steamer, only to be sunk the next morning, he was stranded on a deserted island for a week before setting out for Ceylon in a native boat. His epic journey covered 1660 miles and took 37 days. Thereafter his adventures continued, with the North African landings, Russian convoys and, returning to the Far East, he was in the carrier Formidable when she was hit twice by Japanese Kamikazes before VI Day August 1945.

Sometimes You Need to Keep a Starboard Attitude.  For the past 15 years Bob Bitchin has been the heart of the sailing community. His magazines, Latitudes & Attitudes and Living Aboard, share the joys of the cruising lifestyle, and his nationally televised weekly TV show shares the true adventure of what it is like to be a sailor in the 21st Century. This is a collection of articles that show what it is truly like once a person has decided to cut the dock lines and sail off into the sunset. Bob has sailed over 100,000 miles, all over the world, and still manages to get out and show sailors what it's like with his "Share the Sail" adventures in such idyllic areas as Tahiti, Croatia, Tonga, Greece, the BVIs, and Thailand.

At one point after the boom vang broke loose, the boom and the sail shifted to a higher position. I didnt like the loss of control this caused. The boat was swinging from 0 to 20 degrees in jerky motions, lifting and heeling. The boom vang had been ripped out of its housing. I had an idea what to do and told Roxanne what I had in mind. At a certain moment, with her help holding up the boom vang in a certain way, I would let go of the rudder and lunge forward to grab the creature from her hand and plunge its little head into the second available hole, a slot just under the boom. This she understood, but all the while I was under great stress, anxious for my daughters life and mine. The wind was quite strong and I didnt want the boat to flip over not there, away from any available help. We were two miles from shore in any direction. I checked the waves and wind and then turned the boat into the wind. On my signal to Roxanne, I lurched forward and grabbed the beastly creature and shakily shoved its head in the hole. I then turned the boat back to windward and pulled in on the sheet that pulled the boom back to its correct position. Everything was fine again. In a plastic bag hanging from the boom near the mast were my cigarettes and a lighter. Thats where Roxanne was also handy. She passed me a cigarette and my lighter and I lit it and took a big drag. Ah The rest of the day went beautifully. In the same bag we had a nice light lunch (gourmet style), a couple of baloney sandwiches, and two cans of pop.

Can it really be true that 'golf' stands for 'Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden'? Or that 'rule of thumb' comes from an archaic legal principle that a man may chastise his wife, but only with a rod no thicker than his thumb? These and hundreds of other stories are commonly told and retold whenever people meet. They grow up in part because expressions are often genuinely mysterious. Why, for example, are satisfying meals 'square' rather than any other shape? And how did anyone ever come up with the idea that if you're competent at something you can 'cut the mustard'? Michael Quinion here retells many of the more bizarre tales, and explains their real origins where they're known. This is a fascinating treasure-trove of fiction and fact for anyone interested in language.

Minutes before supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef, before rocks ripped a huge hole in her hull and a geyser of crude oil darkened Prince William Sound’s pristine waters, the ship’s lookout burst through the chart room door. “That light, sir, it’s still on the starboard side. It should be to port, sir.” Her frantic words were merely the last in a litany of futile warnings. The parade of ultimately unkept promises began the next day. President Frank Iarossi pronounced that the Exxon Shipping Company had “assumed full financial responsibility.” Alaska Governor Steve Cowper spoke at the Valdez Civic Center. “We don’t want anybody to think that they have to hire a lawyer and go into federal court and sue the largest corporation in America.” Valdez native Bobby Day flew over the spill and knew his livelihood was in jeopardy. He struggled with betrayal and guilt, and later, tensions within a divided community. His story lends a local perspective and conveys the damage to individuals and the fishing industry. Lengthy investigations revealed cover ups, reckless management, numerous safety violations, and a broken regulatory process. Lawmakers aligned with businesses, and fishermen spent nearly twenty years in litigation. Despite a massive cleanup effort, oil remains on beaches and continues to impact marine life. Angela Day documents a story that stunned the world, recounts regional and national history, and explains how oil titans came to be entrusted with a spectacular, fragile ecosystem. It discusses environmental consequences, failed governmental and public policy decisions, and changes that offer hope for the future. Red Light to Starboard won the Western Writers of America’s 2015 Spur Award for Best Western Contemporary Nonfiction, two IndieFab Awards from ForeWord Magazine, and was named a 2015 American Library Association Outstanding University Press Title.