Flirting with Mermaids: The Unpredictable Life of a Sailboat Delivery Skipper

By John Kretschmer

Book Overview

Over the course of twenty years of delivering sailboats to far-flung quaysides, John Kretschmer has had innumerable adventures, both humorous and terrifying. in Flirting with Mermaids, he recounts the most memorable of them.

He crosses the Western Caribbean with a crew of eccentric Swedes researching ancient Mayan mariners, lands in Aden at the outbreak of civil war, and endures a North Atlantic crossing during which he disocvers the existence of Force 13 winds. Approaching Japan at the end of a particularly trying delivery, he finds himself sailing in "a high impact debris zone," but his resolve is unshaken. "If a piece of rocketship jetsam fell out of the sky and sank me] after encounters with Hurricane Floyd, General Noriega, a tsunami, an erupting volcano, and Typhoon Roy, then it was meant to be."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1574091646
• ISBN13: 9781574091649
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: Sheridan House
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

This one delivers

This book is an excellent account of what it means to be a sailboat delivery captain. The author blends his stories together in a very clever way that causes the book to be entertaining and somewhat humorous. I would recommend it to anyone that loves to sail, whether it be offshore or cruising around the harbor.

Excellent! I couldn't put it down.

This has to be one of the best books I have read in quite a while. John makes you feel like you are a part of his crew (or at least a fly on the bulkhead) throughout each adventure. I only wish I had gone into the boat delivery business instead of computers...

Buy It, Read It, Love It

This is a great book! I dreaded finishing it as I saw the pages rapidly flying by. Mr. Kretschmer's every day adventures as a sailboat delivery skipper are very entertaining, but the true wealth in this book is this guy's attitude. An inspiration to all, sailors and landlubbers, who are concious of their voyage across this little blue planet.

Enormously entertaining!

This book is filled with humor and adventure, an unbeatable combination. The author displays a very engaging style and these exciting tales of sailing adventures will entertain sailors and landlubbers alike.

A wild story from a windy guy !

Of the three books that John has written this is the best. You can feel the excitement, love, and hate in each page. If you are a landlubber, better take some dramamine before you start reading, as the descriptions of the storms can make you seasick. The book is a love story with lots of nautical action to keep the reader's attention. The book is hard to put down, as the reader is pulled into the story with the captain and the crew.. Will John make landfall, with all his body parts? Will the boat sink and the crew vanish? The stories are so well written, that I felt that I should put on my foul weather gear. You should buy the first edition of this book, it could replace the Old Man and the Sea !