The Seventh Deadly Cruise

Cruising French Waterways has rapidly become the leading descriptive guide to the astonishingly varied network of rivers and canals that penetrate almost every region of France. Winner of the Thomas Cook Guide Book Award, it is full of fascinating information on the history and commercial activities of each area, as well as the historical sites, chateaux and scenic attractions of the many villages and towns which await discovery by water. Practical details include the maps and guides available for each area, maximum craft dimensions, bankside facilities, moorings, repair yards, shops, restaurants, fuel and water sources, waterways museums and wine regions. Beautifully illustrated, the fourth edition covers all recently restored waterways and explains newly introduced requirements for licenses and personal qualifications. 'So comprehensive, it is now the standard work on the waterways of France' Waterways 'Handsome... beautifully illustrated' Sunday Telegraph

The Royal Star, the most exclusive cruise ship in the world, has just set sail from Miami on its inaugural voyage. For the hundred or so notable and well-heeled passengers, including Zack Chasteen, and his wife, Barbara, the itinerary is a secret and the week ahead promises to be an ultra-indulgent tropical sojourn. But just an hour out of port, gunmen take over the Royal Star, killing most of the officers and sequestering passengers throughout the ship. Not only is Zack separated from Barbara, he has another worry —Barbara is eight months pregnant with their first child and could go into labor at any moment. As Zack and his fellow captives struggle to get an upper hand, the ship's hijackers offer few clues to their motives. Maybe it's a simple kidnap/extortion plot. Or maybe the hijackers are bent on more devious ends – using the Royal Star as a giant torpedo to blow up another cruise ship. Either way, Zack must figure out a way to stop them--while keeping himself and his wife alive.

A complete survey of the world's finest cruise lines and their ships. Packed with information on facilities, on-board services, activities, rates, and itineraries, it also includes ideas on things to see and do in popular ports around the world and a complete cruise primer loaded with tips and hints for first-timers and cruise veterans alike.

A shocking exposé of modern piracy - the Fast Food Nation of the cruise industry

These widely acclaimed essays from the author of Infinite Jest -- on television, tennis, cruise ships, and more -- established David Foster Wallace as one of the preeminent essayists of his generation. In this exuberantly praised book -- a collection of seven pieces on subjects ranging from television to tennis, from the Illinois State Fair to the films of David Lynch, from postmodern literary theory to the supposed fun of traveling aboard a Caribbean luxury cruiseliner -- David Foster Wallace brings to nonfiction the same curiosity, hilarity, and exhilarating verbal facility that has delighted readers of his fiction, including the bestselling Infinite Jest.

When she set off to cross the Atlantic as part of a delivery crew, Jill Dickin Schinas had no idea that she was embarking on a whole new life, but within a week of setting out she and the skipper were making plans for a journey to Cape Horn. One year later the couple were on their way but had detoured up the Amazon to get married. Two years after that they were crossing the Atlantic again, this time from the Caribbean and this time with the ship's company enlarged by the addition of a two year old son and a babe in arms. Together the little family then headed directly for the Falkland Islands and the southern tip of South America - travelling via the Bahamas, the Azores, Portugal, the Canaries, Cape Verde, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Sao Tome and Principe, Uruguay, Argentina, and various tenanted and untenanted islets and lumps of rock cast adrift in the Atlantic Ocean. Seven years after setting out, they almost reached their destination... On the face of it, this book is a travelogue, but it is also a portrait of the cruising lifestyle- the hand-to-mouth, alternative lifestyle, not the early-retirement luxury cruise. Yes, we were bound for Cape Horn... in as much as we had a destination, this indeed was it. But we were in no great hurry, and even this goal was viewed as little more than a staging post on our journey, for we meant to journey indefinitely. Truly, it was not a place but a lifestyle which we were setting forth to find. The family's adventures range from fighting gales and battling with immigration officials, to exploring uncharted African waters and abandoning ship to board a chopper via the winch cable. There is much in here that will beof value to other yachtsmen and other travellers, and heaps which will appeal to armchair voyagers and to families seeking to turn away from the nine-to-five motorway and tread a road of their own. Contains 31 pen-and-ink drawings and cartoons. Includes a brief glossary for people not conversant with sailing terminology. By the author of Kids in the Cockpit (a guide to sailing and cruising with children). The Schinas family are talented people. Theres nothing on the planet that Nick cant fix, while Jill is an artist of character. The children are developing in the same mould, but the overriding feature of all their lives and the guiding spirit of this book, is their self-sufficiency and courage to make their own choices, come fair weather or foul. Casting fate to the ocean winds without visible means of support in the third millennium demands a lot more guts than ever it did thirty years ago. Keeping going, despite producing three fine children and surviving a capsize off the Falklands that ended on the winch cable of an RAF helicopter, shows the true spirit of seafaring. TOM CUNLIFFE