I want to enthusiastically agree with Andrew Krumpe about _Riddle of the Sands_. It is a really good sailing book, and a really good story. A movie was made of it several years ago that is faithful to the book and is worth seeing.
Let me suggest a couple more books that I think are really good.
Maurice Griffiths _The Magic of the Swatchways_ Nautical Books, 1986 (first published 1932) ISBN 0 85177 385 0. Distributed by Sheridan Books.
Griffiths was the editor of the English _Yachting Monthly_ for thirty years or more, and never had more than a couple of weeks vacation at a time. He was unable to take long voyages to white sand beaches and palm treed islands, so he did all of his sailing within a couple of hours train ride of his office in London. He sailed along the English coast of the North Sea and particularly in the Thames estuary, where the water is shallow at best, many rivers only have water in them at high tide, and great numbers of sand bars are above water at low tide. Each chapter is a separate cruise. In the 66 years since its publishing, the book has seldom been out of print, and for good reason. It is one of my favorites.
Frank and Margaret Dye _Ocean Crossing Wayfarer_ David and Charles, 1977. ISBN 0 7153 7371 4
Frank Dye was also limited to two week vacations from his job as parts manager of a relative's Ford Anglia dealership in England. On vacations he sailed his Wayfarer, a 16 foot open dinghy, on the open ocean. In this book he describes two cruises--one from Scotland to Iceland (!!) and one from Scotland to Norway. If any open boat sailor today could be accurately described as "a living legend," Frank Dye is the one.
Regards
Tom Grimes
P-14 #363 Far Horizon
Muncie, Indiana