OUR BOOKS

To order books please contact

Mahina Offshore Services
PO Box 1596
Friday Harbor, WA 98250, USA
phone: 360-378-6131 cell: 360-378-7344

Selecting & Purchasing an Ocean Cruising Boat

by John Neal

I’m giving you this free 75-page book to enable you to select an offshore cruising boat with confidence and pride, knowing that the listed boats are tried and tested.

Chapters include: 20 Qualities of an Ideal Cruising Boat, Evolution of Yacht Design, Why Some Boats More Expensive than Others, Negative Design and Construction Aspects to be Avoided, the Purchase Process and 400 Specific Recommended Boats.

Please note I don’t accept compensation from anyone other than my Boat Purchase Consultation Clients.

FREE PDF BOOK [Download here]

Offshore Cruising Companion

by John Neal & Amanda Swan Neal

An indispensable stand-alone guide for preparing yourself and your sailboat for safe coastal and offshore adventures, as well as the textbook for the Offshore Cruising Seminars. John and Amanda offer unbiased and sage advice on over 36 topics including: Boat Selection, Priority and Optional Equipment, Seamanship, Anchoring, Storm Tactics, Communications, Insurance and Managing your Escape.

Updated annually, this comprehensive book also contains multiple checklists and resources allowing you to fast-track your cruising dreams into reality. 264 pages.

Price: $60.00 plus $10 domestic, $20 foreign shipping

Expedition Companion

by John and Amanda Swan Neal

This annually updated comprehensive 115-page manual covers most topics taught on our sail-training expeditions. If you’re joining us for an expedition you will receive this by mail before your expedition begins. If you’re considering signing up, this book will help you evaluate our offshore instruction program and we will refund the cost of the book.

Price: $20.00 plus $5 s/h

Storm Survival Tactics

by John and Amanda Swan Neal

This 25-page booklet accompanies our one-hour Mastering Storm Survival and Avoidance boat show seminar and covers the following topics: Selecting Your Boat & Equipment, Sail Reduction Guide, Understanding Weather, Storm Procedures & Tactics, Seasickness and Dealing with Anxiety and Fears in Storm Conditions.

Price: $10.00 and $2 s/h

The Essential Galley Companion – Second Edition

by Amanda Swan Neal

The updated and expanded second edition of The Essential Galley Companion redefines the traditional concept of boating cuisine with an intriguing collection of 425 international recipes and galley advice interwoven with tales of personal adventure. 378 pages.

Price $22.95 plus $3 s/h for an autographed copy, by contacting Mahina Expeditions: sailing@mahina.com.

Or buy on Amazon

Marine Diesel Engine Essentials – A Learning and Coloring Book

by Amanda Swan Neal

This 20-page coloring book takes you on an exploratory adventure to help you understand the six systems that make a marine diesel engine work. As you color, notes, labels and whimsical sea-themed friends help you identify the individual components of each system.

Created by Amanda, illustrated by sailing artist Andrea England and endorsed by diesel engine expert Nigel Calder.

Price: $10.00 plus $2 s/h

Log of the Mahina: A Tale of the South Pacific

by John Neal

“Above all, the Log of the Mahina is a practical book, which should be required reading for all yachties venturing into the dangers and pleasures, physical and romantic, that lie in wait in Polynesia. The book abounds with information about passes and beacons and port requirements; it provides detailed pen pictures about many of the less frequented ports of call and includes a how-to-do-it-yourself primer on preparing a yacht for offshore cruising.” — Pacific Islands Monthly

“For Neal his log becomes more a journal and less a log, a recounting of his impressions of what he saw and who he met. The result is a book without affectation an honest, simple record of one man’s adventure.

With stops that include the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Tahiti, the Societies, the Cooks, Samoa, and Christmas Island, plus falling in love, tearing up his rudder, and getting home, Neal has a lot to tell. What he does cover serves as both a guide and inducement for anyone with a Pacific cruise in mind, either as plans about to be fulfilled or dreams of some future date when, like Neal, it seems the time to try something new.” — SAIL Magazine.

Price: $16.95 plus $3 s/h.

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Mahina Tiare: Pacific Passages

by Barbara Marrett and John Neal

“Mahina Tiare, Pacific Passages is filled with honest and very different insights from both sides of a cruising couple who made the life-style work. In their sensitive writing styles, they tell of their first cruise together — he the experienced offshore sailor with wanderlust, she the novice sailor with spunk who was looking for a real change in her life. We follow their adventures as they take Mahina Tiare through some of the most remote and beautiful of the South Pacific islands, as they work to earn a living along the way, as they learn about the limits of endurance each can sustain, and then the story of closing the circle with the sale of their boat.” — Bernadette Bernon, Editor, Cruising World Magazine.

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