If you are working from home and finding it hard to remain focused, relax. In these times, we all could use some healthy distractions. Just as good music helps lift the spirit, so, too, does listening to a fantastic story. These four audiobooks about yachts and the water will help make home confinement a little easier. You can download them from Audible, Audiobooks, and Apple Books, all of which are giving away recordings for free.
1. Yachts and Things. The late, great Truman Capote (above) gained fame for penning literary classics like Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood. Interestingly, if it hadn’t been for a Vanity Fair writer, Yachts and Things likely may never have seen the light of day. This previously unpublished work of short fiction, narrated by the award-winning Victor Bevine, chronicles the story of two friends who take a three-week yacht charter along the Turkish coast. On a related note, rumors have long held that one of the protagonists in the story is the late Katherine Graham, the publisher of The Washington Post.
2. Sailing, Yachts & Yarns. Tom Cunliffe is a British yachting journalist, author, and broadcaster. While the rest of the audiobooks about yachts and the water here have separate narrators and authors, Sailing, Yachts & Yarns is from both Cunliffe’s pen and voice. Specifically, it’s a collection of his funniest and shrewdest columns from Yachting Monthly magazine. He tells the tales of all sorts of characters he’s met on the docks of North America, South America, England, Greenland… you name it. If you don’t laugh, or even want to head off to sea, after you’re done listening, you’re probably hopeless.
3. Team Spirit: Life and Leadership on One of the World’s Toughest Yacht Races. At 28 years old, Brendan Hall was the youngest and least-experienced skipper in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race in 2010. Yet, despite the odds, he and his team won the 35,000-mile circumnavigation challenge. Hall wrote the original book himself, though Stephen Pilkington narrates the audiobook. It’s a story of teamwork, leadership, skill, courage, and focus.
4. Blue Mind. Among the four audiobooks about yachts and the water on our list, this has us currently enthralled. The subtitle alone tells why. It’s The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, in, on, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do. Wallace J. Nichols, a marine biologist, wrote and narrates Blue Mind, tying together neuroscience with personal experiences of scientists, athletes, and more. Ocean advocate Céline Cousteau narrates the foreword, too.
Better yet, we’re recording a podcast with Nichols for our Megayacht News Radio series, to talk further about Blue Mind. Stay tuned.
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