Flirting With Mermaids: The Unpredictable Life of a Sailboat Delivery Skipper
"I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the idea of bluewater sailing." --Good Old Boat, May/June 2000"Kretschmer's breezy, self-deprecating and genuinely warm style is perfectly suited..." --Living Aboard, February 2000For anyone not smitten by long-distance sailing, the fascination with this grueling, sometimes dangerous labor is difficult to fathom. Yet reading about Kretschmer's extreme adventures from the safety of land is both exhilarating and absorbing.  --Sun-Sentinel, May 3, 1999I have a very simple yardstick for determining the quality of a book.  I  ask myself, "Do I wish I'd written it?"  Oftentimes the answer is, "No, thank  heavens!"  In this case, however, there's no question that I wish I'd authored  this book.Kretschmer is far more than just an extremely experienced sailor--he's also a  poet, a philosopher, a romantic, and like most sailors, an optimist.  The book  is filled with a myriad of sea stories--all eminently readable--as well as a  salting of practical information about sailboats and the sea, all delivered with  a wry and self-deprecating sense of humor.Kretschmer once doubled Cape Horn in a tiny boat, and the fame from that venture  launched him on his career as a delivery skipper, which he tells with both humor  and a sense of adventure.  There were times when I couldn't put the book down,  and times when I found myself laughing out loud. . .From a bizarre research  expedition with a group of Swedes hunting for the ancient Mayan navy to a rough  mid-winter crossing of the North Atlantic, Kretschmer's tale unfolds like a  comfortably worn chart.I'd be surprised if you don't enjoy Flirting With Mermaids, and like me, hope  that John Kretschmer writes again soon.  --Sailing Magazine, September 1999