Dieter Loibner, an editor and boating writer, holds a Ph.D. in journalism. He has contributed hundreds of articles on sailing to newspapers and magazines around the world. He lives in Oakland, California.

A colourful and good humoured insight into the private life of the puffin, and an honest portrait of human life on the ocean waves.

On a dark night in the Danish harbour of Dragor, Ulf is handed a logbook by a lone sailor who then disappears. The bizarre events recorded in the log lead to a harrowing winter crossing of the North Sea.

Pete Goss became a national and international hero when he rescued French yachtsman Raphael Dinelli as his boat sank beneath him in the round-the-world single-handed sailing race, the Vendee Globe, on Christmas Day 1996. In doing so Pete scuppered his own chances in the race but was awarded theLegion d'Honneur by France's president and made a friend for life in Dinelli.Close to the Wind is his own story of the race and its dramas, his revolutionary boat,Aqua Quorum, his thoughts and emotions during four months of solitude at sea, the extraordinary surgery that he had to perform on his own elbow and the aftermath of the rescue in the Southern Ocean.

From the author of Yacht Designing and Planning and Boatbuilding: the definitive history and survey of the great classic American small sailing craft.

An exploration into the untold lives of 50 of the most compelling fish living in our oceans and waterways.