The Anti-Pirate Potato Cannon: And 101 Other Things for Young Mariners to Build, Try, and Do on the Water

Spark a passion for sailng and the outdoors in your child

From the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards bronze medal winner

Ever since humankind began seafaring, boats and shoreline adventures have produced sturdy, independent, creative, self-reliant kids. From the author of the bestselling Complete Sailor and proud father of a boy mariner, here is the book for all parents who want to introduce their kids to the world of boats, boating, sailing, the shore, and the sea. It provides dozens of adventures and activities for kids, and a plethora of projects for you and your kids to do together.

Topics range from how-to to fanciful, in random organization so that each excursion into the book turns up unrelated gems on facing pages. The Anti-Pirate Potato Cannon encourages your kid to get outdoors and on the water, to build things, to try things, to cultivate their curiosity, to learn self-reliance, and to get a giant dose of the magic of seaside adventure.

• Loaded with things for kids to do--build a rope ladder
  build a Huck Finn raft from PVC pipe
  catch and fillet a fish
  go crabbing
  skip a stone
  body surf
  waterski on bare feet
  chart a cove
  learn the great sea battles
  build a sandcastle
  navigate
  win a sailboat race
  paddle a sea kayak
  and a whole lot more.
• Designed to cultivate a kid's curiosity about the natural world.

Topics include:
Where's the wind coming from
How high is that wave
An anti-pirate potato cannon
Brew your own biofuel
Make a dugout canoe
Build a Huck Finn raft from PVC pipe
Skip a stone
Build a sandcastle
Carve a paddle
Row a boat Escape a rip current
Go kite sailing
Navigate by the stars
Carve a half-hull model
What's on the bottom
A journey to the abyss
Don't wrestle an alligator
A dinghy camper
How to dive with mask and snorkel
Build a motorboat from cardboard tubes
Body surf
Recognize ships
Discipline in the Age of Sail: cat-o-nine tails, hanging from the yardarms
Steer without a rudder
Chapter 25. Tie up to a dock
Reading a lines drawing
Whatever floats your boat
Play nautical capture the flag
Paddle a sea kayas
Build a rowboat
Signal across the water
Capture plankton in a net
Tie knots and splices
Make a rope ladder
Make a chart of your favorite cove
Throw your own beach clam bake
Make a catboat-race weather vane
Fight off a shark
Heave a monkey's fist
Ski on your own bare feet
Fillet a fish... and cook it on your engine
Your own ditty bag
A proper sailor's knife
How to stand up on a PWC
How to get up on a wakeboard
Go clamming
Build a human pyramid on water skis
How to poop in a boat: How marine heads work
Diver's tube raft
Submarine a PWC
Survive a sinking
Finding east or west All you need is the north star
The bosun's pipe
Ships in a bottle
Five sea battles that changed history
Use the five secrets of winning a sailboat race
Make a viewing bucket to see underwater
Cast a fly
Survive a hurricane
The Eskimo roll
Stow that chart
Goggles from a soda bottle
Find fish fast
Repair a sail
Whalewatching
Go on a plastics hunt
Don't be left in the dark
Pets at sea: how to train your cat or dog for boating
The green and clean boat
Ride the disk
Go crabbing
Careers at sea
Pass your boating license exam
Origins of sea terms
The best way to coil rope
Carve a slalom turn
Keeping watch
Throwing a cast net
Keep what you catch - start an aquarium
Heroes of the Sea: Shackleton, Slocum, Day, Knox-Johnston, Heyerdahl, etc.
Books & Stories (Three Men in a Boat, Crunch and Des, Riddle of the Sands, Swallows and Amazons)
Stage paintball sea battles
Read the messages in clouds
Get unlost in the fog: sager forecaster
Know how to handle waves
Semaphore signals
Glacier surfing
Great voyages by young mariners
Make a weather station