Night Crossings: Maritime Encounters With Rogue Waves At Night While Crossing California's Notorious Humboldt Bar

By Jon Humboldt Gates

Book Overview

At night, a harbor entrance becomes a dark and unpredictable corridor. One of the most dangerous harbor crossings in North America is the entrance to Humboldt Bay, on the California North Coast. For years, mariners have traded tales of shipwrecks and narrow escapes on the bar. The five stories retold here occurred between 1933 and 1982. They are based on recollections of sailors who survived the treacherous waters when a rogue wave came out of the darkness. In 1933, two teenagers pilot a small sailboat on a midnight adventure. Forty years later, Christmas Eve turns into a nightmare for the fishermen aboard the LADY FAME. Theirs are two of the voices that evoke the haunting uncertainty of a night crossing.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1878136003
• ISBN13: 9781878136008
• Release Date: November 1986
• Publisher: Moonstone Publishing
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

I really liked it

I was waiting with my group for a table at the Eatery in Trinidad, California and browsing the books in the gift shop. I first thought this one by a local author was a poetry collection, but after I read the first paragraph and a half from the Introduction I knew differently. I also knew I was hooked. I had to hurry to the table that came ready but I bought the book on the way out and read it on the plane trip home. The author tells his stories very well. His style brings the people and the sea forth in a completely real and vivid and credible way. I felt I stepped back into the weathery wet world of the west coast that I had left behind years ago. But I had only experienced storms from shore and this book brought me in touch with the ever present dangers of the sea so vividly that I feel those stories are part of my own history. Now I am on the outlook for more books to continue the adventure. Thank you, Jon Gates.

A must read adventure that is reality, been there done it

As a past fisherman of 20 years in the Alaskan waters I can say been there done it. Jon captures reality, that is untouchable unless you've been there a book can give you the placement and this is one that delivers. Couldn't put it down. Must read.Jeff Soriano

For those who wonder how the sea claims fishermen.

For anyone who has ever stood and watched the fury of swells rolling in out of the north Pacific Ocean or seen a sneaker wave rise up out of a calm ocean until it towers overhead, this book will bring chills.