Time for a new book

The last time I pulled the blog posts together and created a book was for our 2021-2 seasons, about bringing Robinetta round Cape Wrath to her new home in the Firth of Clyde. "Round Cape Wrath" is still available to purchase in paperback or electronic form, like all our books, but I thought it was time  to create a 9th book, about Robinetta's exploits from her Scottish home.

The electronic version of "On the Whale Road" is now available for pre-order for £4.99, with the release date being the end of February. The print version will also be available from Amazon on that date, but rather more expensive at £19.99. Unfortunately the cost of printing continues to increase and as the Robinetta books are print on demand I hold very little stock and price increases are inevitable.

Significant work goes into creating these books, which I hope adds value to the record in this blog. They should also contain no spelling mistakes, far fewer grammatical errors and have a more consistent style. They also contain maps to let you see our routes.

 Please have a look at the books, and if you decide to buy, then please leave a review.

End of a long season

 Robinetta was hauled out at Craig's Big Shed in Rosneath in the middle of October, and she is now safely undercover for the winter. Once she has dried out a little it will be time to get to work on her paint and varnish.

It has been a long hard season for her, and having her inside the shed feels like a huge relief.

We have spent a lot of time aboard this year, with long weekends, 2 fortnight cruises, and a 1 week cruise to finish. We also did get one day sail in our new local area!

Robinetta began her travels at the start of April in Southwold, Suffolk, and reached the Gairloch in the Clyde by the end of September. She traveled 1127nm in 333 hours, split over 42 days underway.

The new engine gave sterling performance over 264 hours, although we have some concerns over the fact that it is burning oil when under high revs.

The latest blog collection will be available under the title "Round Cape Wrath" at the start of December, available from all the usual places. Please have a look at the publishing pages for links when they become available.

New Blog Book. Bristol to the Blackwater

This year's book of the blog is now complete and ready to buy from Amazon.

This is the first year that I have simultaneously published print and e-book versions. Publishing a 160 page book in full colour remains an expensive proposition. The paperback book is available at £14.99, but the e-book is only £3.90. The e-book is also available from the other outlets on the side bar.

The two formats are slightly different, in that the e-book has a couple more pictures, but the text is identical.

The book is not just a straight rip of the blog, but carefully edited to make a flowing text. This one is in Julian's voice, and I hope you find it interesting. If you do decide to buy it would be lovely if you left a review!

Paperback publishing

I've been laid up after a foot operation for the last few weeks, and spent the time reviewing the collected blog books. Amazon have started to provide a print on demand service, so I played around with creating print, not just electronic copies of a couple of the books. They are 9"x 6" format, and practically every page has a full colour photograph on it. They also have maps of our route. The cost is high for their length, but this is down to the colour throughout.

Day Sailing Round Ireland: Fair Winds and Calm Seas . £15.99 ($22 in America)  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1977055427

Gales Every Weekend:  £8.99 ($12). https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1976907969

These links take you to the UK sales page, but the books can be purchased direct from any of the Amazon sites.

I don't know if any one will take advantage of the paperback availability, but if there are sales then I will probably publish the other volumes in this format too.

New Blog Book

This is the time of year when I attempt to pull the blog entries together into a coherent narrative. This year's volume is called "A Strait, some Sounds, and a Sea" and is available from all the usual electronic book retailers:

Apple iBook

• Kindle
• 
  
• Kobo
• 
  
• Nook
• 
  
• scribd

The book contains maps of our progress that are not in the blog, as I have found it useful to put these in. It is also helpful to have a version of our journeys in a form that reads forward through the year.

I have also published a new edition of the second book in the series, from 2013 "Robinetta; There and Back Again". This should hopefully now read much more smoothly that the first edition, which was a straight rip of the blog. If you bought this previously through Amazon you should be able to update to the new edition without charge should you wish to do so.

I can not guarantee that either book is free of spelling mistakes, but there should be far fewer than in the original blog (although new ones always seem to creep in!).

I welcome any comments and reviews (even negative ones which will help me do a better job next time) and will always endeavour to correct any errors.

Day Sailing Round Ireland

Once again we have spend some time compiling the season's blog into a book. With the posts tidied up, and bits added in, this runs to over 52,000 words! There are also many pictures and if we were to publish it as a paper book the cost would be prohibitive.

Day Sailing Round Ireland was published on 3rd November, and is available through Amazon, Apple, Barnes&Noble, etc..

As usual, we have edited the posts into a single voice, mine this time. We think that makes it easier to read. I did do the bulk of the posts this year but it is a joint effort.

Collected blog books

With no more visits to Robinetta scheduled for the moment, it feels time to collect this year's posts into book form. It is shorter than last years, but then we were only aboard for six weeks rather than getting on for twelve. The book is in blog form with daily posts but we have edited them into a single voice (Julian's for a change).

I have also updated Light Airs and Yachtsman's Gales to remove some typo's and add captions to the pictures. If you own this eBook you can update your copy at no cost.

You will see a new element in the side bar. With the eBooks coming onto more platforms I wanted an easy way for people to find the ones they want.

Light Airs and Yachtsman's Gales

We've published a book of the blog for the last two years. The first one covered five years of sailing, and the second just one, 2013. They are available through Amazon and suitable for reading on any electronic reader, but they are just collected blog posts. This year I thought we should do something different, since we were spending a lot longer on the boat!

Our new book is not just a collection of blog posts, but has been edited into a continuous narrative that I hope will make for a more consistent and enjoyable read. You can find it by searching for "Light Airs and Yachtsman's Gales". Have a look at the preview, which covers our first fortnight aboard, and if you like it, why not buy it!

Collected Blog on Kindle

Once again I have collected the year's blog posts together, edited it, and added a little, (like my side of what happened at Rye). It's now available to buy from Amazon for reading on Kindle and/or Android devices. Since its only about 26,000 words I've priced it at the princely sum of 77p including VAT, so if anyone wants to be able to browse the blog off line, please buy!

Just search for Robinetta, There and Back Again, the 2013 log, and it should pop right up! It follows on immediately where the first volume left off.

About 20 people have bought Robinetta: her five year mission to seek out the places everyone else says are good, and we got a 5 star review off one of them in America, which is very pleasing given it is very basically formatted.

I've changed the cover, so it matches the second volume a bit better.

Collected posts

I've been collecting the blog posts into book form for a while. It makes it easier for me to look back and find comments I've made about events. Today I've published that book of collected posts on Kindle.

I've published on Kindle before, (my teenage fantasy books (which no one buys) and my Sci-Fi books which some people do). Those were simple to prepare since they are only text, but the Robinetta blog has a lot of pictures and I'm not sure how well I've done it. Any way, if any one apart from me wants a portable version of this blog, go to Amazon, and search for:-

Robinetta: her five year mission to seek out the places everyone one else says are good.

(That extended version of the title is down to Julian. Mine was "Being the little adventures of a small wooden yacht on the East Coast of England")

Just Robinetta should find it!

Please leave a comment here, or better yet a review on Amazon, if you read it!