Arctic Voyage eBook

John Published Oct 7, 2012 24 comments

In 2011 Phyllis and I made a voyage to the west coast of Greenland on Morgan’s Cloud. Once in Greenland, we spent nearly a month visiting remote hunting and fishing communities so that our friend Grete, an eminent anthropologist, could continue her study of the impact of climate change on the people.

That voyage, which covered some 7000 miles and took us to some of the most remote and wild parts of our planet including North Labrador, Baffin Island, and Greenland, was one of the most wonderful, and yet deeply challenging, experiences of our lives.

To share that experience, we have produced a 104-page eBook of large high-resolution photographs and text, which you can buy for just CAN$9.99 (free for members).

Update November 2017

We are no longer selling this eBook, however if you join as a member you will receive a gift copy.

The photography is stunning and the luminous nature of the light in the far north shows to excellent effect on a computer monitor…Your shopping cart app and download link worked perfectly for me. Paul

This is the eBook for you if:

You have ever dreamed of sailing north, or to any remote place. We wrote most of the text while actually underway and it is rich with our joys…and yes, our fears.
You are interested in what is happening in the North (and we all should be) as seen through the eyes of non-scientists.
You like my photographs and our writing and would like to help fund the substantial costs of running this site.
You are smart or good looking or even both.

Take a peek before you buy.

The eBook is in PDF format and can be enjoyed on any computer, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, or Android.

Paper Book

You can also buy the book printed on good old paper, but the price is a bit high due to the book’s length and the cost of printing on demand.

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Meet the Author

John

John was born and brought up in Bermuda and started sailing as a child, racing locally and offshore before turning to cruising. He has sailed over 100,000 miles, most of it on his McCurdy & Rhodes 56, Morgan's Cloud, including eight ocean races to Bermuda, culminating in winning his class twice in the Newport Bermuda Race. He has skippered a series of voyages in the North Atlantic, the majority of which have been to the high latitudes. John has been helping others go voyaging by sharing his experience for twenty years, first in yachting magazines and, for the last 12 years, as co-editor/publisher of AAC.

24 comments… add one

Jacques Landry Oct 7, 2012, 11:05 am

Hi Phyllis and John,

Very nice ! Good reading and amazing photography.

Living in Montréal and sailing mostly in the Caribbeans for the last few years, I never thought I would want to sail where it is cold ever again. Hum, might change my mind, get some heat source and take a tack North in a future voyage !

Good job. Highly recommended.

Jacques
- John Oct 8, 2012, 11:48 am
  
  Hi Jacques,
  
  Thanks so much for being the first buyer, and for the kind words.
paul shard Oct 8, 2012, 3:06 am

Love eBooks and modern comms technology! Right now we are anchored in a rocky cove in the south of Spain. The only buildings I can see are two beach shacks and an old ruined castle. Yet thanks to modern communications I have just purchased and downloaded your new e-book and look forward to reading it.
- John Oct 8, 2012, 11:53 am
  
  Hi Paul,
  
  Yes, this technology is great.
  
  Also, the very cool thing from our point of view is that the sales process is fully automated, a great boon to a small part time venture.
  
  Thanks for buying.
René Oct 8, 2012, 3:58 am

This morning at 8.45 I saw that you published a book…….at 8.55 the order was complete!

Thanks and I am looking forward receiving it at the end of the month.

Kind regards,

René
- John Oct 8, 2012, 11:51 am
  
  Hi René,
  
  Thanks very much for ordering the first paper book, much appreciated.
sailias Oct 8, 2012, 10:27 am

Great stuff. I wish you would start a series. Once on travel destinations and adventures and a second series on outfitting and all matters related to gear and the vessel. There is a ton on knowledge and experience presented on this site. Very much appreciated for doing so.
- John Oct 8, 2012, 11:50 am
  
  Hi Sailias,
  
  Thanks for the kind comments and for the suggestion.
  
  This is a pilot project, if it goes well there will be more.
Doug Oct 8, 2012, 1:02 pm

e-junkie.com will not connect to make an online purchase using IE or Chrome. Will try again later and report back. Thanks for offering this eBook at a realistic price.
Smooth seas,
Doug
- Doug Oct 8, 2012, 2:13 pm
  
  Problem must of been with PayPal (yes, I have PayPal account) – using your credit card link it went right through. Glad you offered two sources of payment. Thanks again.
  Doug
- John Oct 8, 2012, 2:28 pm
  
  Hi Doug,
  
  Thanks for the heads up. I just did some testing and I too had trouble with Chrome, but with the download link being blocked.
  
  I further traced the problem to a fight between McAfee firewall and Chrome. (Firefox is fine). McAfee had a big upgrade about a week ago and since then it has been causing all kinds of problems. Turn McAfee firewall off and everything is fine.
  
  Time to buy a Mac!
flax hermes Oct 8, 2012, 1:57 pm

We’re always glad when John and Phyllis arrive at Billings to haul or launch Morgan’s Cloud because it means they will stay at our place and bring with them not only good food and conversation but house gifts.

This year it was a copy of A Voyage North. It’s a wonderful little book, not only for John’s photos but for the insights into life on Morgan’s Cloud and Greenland. Highly recommend it.

Flax
- John Oct 9, 2012, 12:56 pm
  
  Hi Flax,
  
  Thanks for the kind words. Readers should take them particularly seriously since they come from someone who has just put up with us as house guests for weeks on end!
Matt B Oct 9, 2012, 6:02 am

Hi

Your book looks fantastic. I’d like to order a hard copy. The link on the blurb website says the book is soft cover. Do you have a hard cover version? If so, how can I buy it? And how much would it cost?

Thanks.
- John Oct 9, 2012, 8:59 am
  
  Hi Matt,
  
  Thanks very much for the kind words. Hard cover would get the price up around US$70.00 or even more if we upgraded the paper. This just seems to be too expensive to me.
  
  What we really need to do to make a paper copy reasonable is do an offset print run of about 2000 copies. That would get the price down to around US$25-30, even for hard copy. Of course the problem is spending that amount of money up front for the print run, with no assurance of selling all the books. It would also get us into the whole administration of shipping books.
  
  If the book continues to do well, we might look at running a kickstarter campaign to fund it, but we would still need to find a solution to the shipping issue.
  - Matt B Oct 9, 2012, 12:21 pm
    
    Hi John
    
    Thanks for your reply. Not to worry. I don’t need a hard cover to plonk it on my coffee table – but it would make it last a lot longer. I expect the book will be well-thumbed-through in no time.
    
    Cheers.
    - Doug Oct 9, 2012, 12:34 pm
      
      John,
      Why not upload the e-Book to BLURB.com so anyone who wants a high quality paper book can order it instantly.
      Check it out and advise here.
      Smooth seas,
      Doug
      - John Oct 9, 2012, 12:54 pm
        
        Hi Doug,
        
        It is already available at Blurb, see the link at the end of the most above. The problem is that print on demand is intrinsically expensive so it costs nearly 60 bucks!
      - Doug Oct 9, 2012, 2:51 pm
        
        I don’t click all the hyper-links – why not say “You can also buy the book printed on good old paper from blurb.com, but the price is rather high at US$57.09, due to the book’s length and the cost of printing on demand.”
        Just a suggestion for better information transfer… lol.
        Thanks,
        Doug
Jessica Nov 15, 2012, 9:35 pm

Thank you for the e-book option! I ordered one for myself. How do you recommend giving it as a gift? It’s perfect for our adventuring friends!
- John Nov 16, 2012, 10:57 am
  
  Hi Jessica,
  
  Thanks for the kind comments on the book.
  
  Right now there is no good way to give it as a gift, since using your friend’s email address, so they would get te download link, would also show them the invoice. Not exactly in the Christmas spirit!
  
  Let me look and see if there is a way for us to sell gift certificates good for a 100% discount on the book. That way you could write the code in a card. How would that be?
Paul Jan 11, 2013, 4:29 pm

I knew the ebook would be good since I’ve seen some of your work in the magazines before. The photography is stunning and the luminous nature of the light in the far north shows to excellent effect on a computer monitor. It was fun to see the picture of Channel Port aux Basque since I had the pleasure of coming in there on the ferry some years ago. I drove up the west coast of Newfoundland, camping along the way, to visit the Viking site at L’Ans au Meadow, and many of your pictures reminded me of the scenery and small towns I saw then.

Thanks for making this book available in non-drm pdf as Adobe drm doesn’t play nice with my linux computers. Your shopping cart app and download link worked perfectly for me. I’ll be taking the book to the marina next week and hopefully will have time to write a nice review to post on my site, http://www.neuseriversailors.com.
- John Jan 12, 2013, 10:41 am
  
  Hi Paul,
  
  Thanks very much for the kind words, much appreciated. I will take the liberty of using them as a testimonial.
  - Paul Jan 12, 2013, 12:08 pm
    
    Please do. By the way, I found time last night to put up a short review of your book on my website. There is also one on Bill Tillman’s Triumph and Tribulation that might tempt some of your readers to pick it up. On the lighter side, I reviewed Martin Edge’s Floating Low to Lofoten about his trip from Scotland to Norway. Well, enough of the blatant self-advertisement. Thanks again for a wonderful ebook.