Since its inception in 1992, The Mariner’s Book of Days has been hailed as the best, most entertaining nautical desk diary and calendar to see print. It is also a valuable reference in its own right; each annual edition—completely different from its predecessor—has become a collector’s item. On each right-hand page is a day- by-day accounting of historical events and space for daily notes, appointments, and reminders. On each left-hand page is a fascinating miscellany of what Robert Louis Stevenson once called “the entertainment of fooling among boats.â€
The Mariner’s Book of Days is a daily, weekly, monthly, annual reminder of the things we love most about the watery world: the pleasures of choosing, building and maintaining our own boats; the intricacies of seamanship and navigation; the development of nautical knowledge; the traditions of the sea; the evolution of a way of life. It is organized in a generally topical manner yet has a labyrinthine quality, not unlike the way we think about the sea when we are so unfortunate as to be away from it. One thing leads to another and then another,and before we know it we’re building a boat with Howard Chapelle, or sailing around the world with Joshua Slocum, or having a drink with Captain John Smith, or, perhaps best of all, dreaming about boats, ships, and the sea with Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. The Mariner’s Book of Days is an annual treasure. Year by year it takes us on a new and different 365-day imaginary voyage through time, an encyclopedic passage through the maritime past, present and future.