I’m sitting here slightly hung over writing this post in blessed semi-silence,,,,with a little reggae turned on. You see, I know that in just a few minutes chaos will be unleashed on me and my house once again,,,,when not two,,,but four children under the age of 10 will return from their afternoon hike. They slept all night while the stupid adults stayed up waaay too late and welcomed 2017. And they have a lot of energy! I love it- most of the time.
Here’s my attempt at yet another book review: Flirting with Mermaids by Mr. John Kretschmer is the second book he’s written out of four. My version is the soft cover with 204 pages total published by Sheridan House in 1999 with the paperback edition published in 2003. I liked this book and I like Mr. Kretschmer’s writing style. I’ve read this book and his next one twice, looking for points to learn, but I’ve also noticed his respectful tone toward the sea, sailboats (no matter the condition) and other things. He’s respectful to his first wife in the book even though he knows the marriage is basically falling apart and is single when he meets his second wife and quickly marries her, buys a boat with her and has a child with her (covered in this book). The book is written as a handful of sea stories he tells to his second wife on their first sailboat delivery together, piecing together some of his longest and most interesting sailboat deliveries throughout the world. By the time he writes this second book, he’s already married to his second wife and is still doing yacht deliveries, something he won’t do forever as he continues to evolve through the years. I would recommend this book as a great window into an unusual and challenging career path, but it’s honestly not as hard-core as Sailing a Serious Ocean. What I’m saying is there may be more lessons learned on boats in the first and third books but lots more quirky stories in this one. Once I started this book, I had trouble putting it down and loved reading it as much the second time as the first time.
This book is a great next chapter after his adventures in the first book, which I reviewed in this post:
I’ve already started reading the third book for a second time, Sailing a Serious Ocean, and will post a review of that one too once I finish it.
AND,,,,if you’re still reading along with this post all the way down here, I’ve got a quick sea story and “thank you” of my own for you. In my attempts to look at different sailboats and compare what might work for my family and others as a great bluewater boat, I decided to see if there were any of the boats that John Kretschmer himself sails. He’s taken his boat lots of miles documented in the third book Sailing a Serious Ocean and so I did a quick search to see if there were any of the same model for sale anywhere. What a shock when Yachtworld brought up a Kaufman and Ladd 47 in good condition,,,in San Diego with the same brokerage where my boat is for sale now. I like Yachtfinders/Windseakers as a brokerage there in San Diego, but have not had a chance to look at the this particular boat yet. I’ve spent some considerable time looking over the pictures of the boat and it’s definitely a sleek blue water cruiser, but I’m not sure I’m sold on the layout. There are also no pictures of the engine or engine room and I fear the access is much the same as other boats I’ve looked at. There are three staterooms, but the layout is a lot like the boat we have now, but since it’s a bigger boat, those staterooms might be larger than ours currently. I do like the looks of the boat and it’s affordable, so it’s a consideration once Tulum IV sells. On a whim in November, I emailed Mr. Kretschmer for his opinion on that particular boat, since he’s sailed the same model thousands of miles. I didn’t think anything of it, never expecting a reply at all because he’s usually off sailing or expecting a canned auto-reply. What a surprise when I checked email in the middle of December and had a nice written reply. Mr. Kretschmer had actually looked over the boat online the night before and commented on the boat, saying he didn’t think it was a Kaufman and Ladd, but a Kaufman 47 just like his boat. He commented on a few points he saw in the pictures, also saying he thought it looked like it was in good shape and would require less work than his when he brought to her life from the boatyard. When I emailed back to thank him, he replied immediately, telling me to let him know if we bought it and that he would check out the blog. Pretty cooool overall and a nice thing to do for a fledgling sailboat blogger like me. I’m impressed, thank you Mr. Kretschmer.
For everyone following and anyone visiting, welcome to 2017!!! Thank you for reading this post and checking out this tiny but growing blog about sailing, cruising, adventure travel, family adventures and progress toward my OUPV and Captain’s License. Our goal is to get to know you and let you get to know us BEFORE we start our several year sailboat cruise, then follow us on our cruising adventures,,,to continue when we get back to the US from our sailing.
