The Coast of Summer

The Coast of Summer

By Anthony Bailey
Published by Lyons Press, an imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group. Inc.
357 pages paperback $18.95

The southern shoreline of New England comprises some very fine cruising grounds, and in The Coast of Summer, author Anthony Bailey invites the reader to join he and his wife Margot for a leisurely warm weather cruise aboard their Tartan 27 Lochinvar.

A staff writer for The New Yorker for thirty-five years, Bailey is both a historian and a gifted storyteller, and the narrative is interspersed with fascinating local histories, legends, geography and biography of such places as the Elizabeth Islands, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket and their inhabitants, past and present. For nearly every spot at which Lochinvar’s anchor settles into the bottom, from shallow ponds to large, deep harbors, Bailey shares a tale of past visitors, from 17th century pirates to 20th century smugglers…and plenty of law-abiding mariners, too.

If you’ve sailed the waters between Stonington, CT and Provincetown you’ll find familiar territory in these pages. If you’re dreaming of our exploring this beautiful part of the Northeast under sail for the first time, this enchanting book is guaranteed to have you consulting your charts and Eldridge…and checking your calendar for upcoming summer vacation days! ■

Anthony Bailey is the author of eighteen fiction and non-fiction books including The Inside
Passage, The Outer Banks, and The Thousand Dollar Yacht. A former part-time resident of Stonington, CT, he lives in Greenwich, England.