Three books for provisioning, entertaining and life on the water!
There is a peculiar moment at a book signing when someone you have never met walks up to the table, picks up a book with your name on the cover and starts flipping through it. As the person who wrote the book, there is really nothing sensible to do at this point. You can’t hover. You can’t say, “Page 47 is particularly good.” And staring at them hopefully is definitely out. So, you smile, pretend to be extremely interested in rearranging the bookmarks and wait.
This year, I’ve had quite a few of those moments. I’ve signed books at boat shows, marinas and events, and what has surprised me most isn’t simply that people are buying them. It’s what happens next. Someone tells me they already own Coastal Galley and have made one of the recipes. Another picks up Aft Deck Society because it reminds her of the way they entertain on their boat. Someone buys Teak Table for friends because they’re going to stay aboard and don’t want to arrive empty-handed.
And then we start talking.
The conversation almost always wanders away from the books and into boating: where we’ve been, where they’re going, what they cook aboard, the anchorage we both love, the refrigerator that is far too small, the friends who arrive by dinghy just before dinner and somehow stay until ten. I’ve met so many wonderful boaters this way, and I’ve come away from these signings thinking that perhaps the nicest thing about writing books isn’t actually selling them. It’s discovering that the little things I love about boating are the same things other people love too.
Of course, selling the books is nice too.
And with the holidays coming, I’ve discovered something else: Coastal Galley, Aft Deck Society and Teak Table make rather excellent gifts for boaters. They’re useful, beautiful, don’t require batteries, and, on any boat, don’t take up much room.
So, if there’s a boater on your holiday list, you’re heading aboard someone’s boat as a guest, or you simply want something good to read while dreaming about next summer, allow me to introduce the three members of my increasingly well-travelled little book family.
Coastal Galley
This is a practical, elegant guide for cruisers who want their time on the water to feel calm, capable, and genuinely enjoyable, especially when it comes to food, drink and entertaining.
Coastal Galley was the book that started it all, built around something every boater eventually discovers: feeding people aboard is less about complicated cooking and much more about planning well.
At home, forgetting an ingredient is mildly inconvenient. On a boat, the missing ingredient may be 30 nautical miles and one dinghy ride away. Provisioning becomes part meal planning, part mathematics and part Tetris as we figure out what will fit, what will last and how many different dinners can reasonably begin with the same bag of potatoes.
I wanted Coastal Galley to make that easier. It’s about provisioning thoughtfully, cooking really good food in a small galley and enjoying the fact that your dining room happens to overlook some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.
It also reflects one of my firmly held boating philosophies: use the good dishes. I have never understood saving our nicest things for some mythical special occasion. You’re anchored in a beautiful bay with people you like and dinner on the table. This is the special occasion.
“Coastal Galley completely changed the way I provision our boat. I bought it for the recipes and ended up buying less food, wasting less food and eating better. My refrigerator has never been so organized.” – Susan, Campbell River, BC
Aft Deck Society
Aft Deck Society is your guide to effortless docktails, complete with uniquely named cocktails and smart substitution ideas for when you can’t get to a store. It helps you host with confidence using what’s already onboard, beautifully, intentionally, and without the fuss.
Cocktail hour aboard has always felt like a ritual to me. The boat is settled, the day is winding down, and there is that lovely moment when you stop doing boat things and simply enjoy being there. Making a proper cocktail marks the occasion (and it can be with or without spirits). But we’re on a boat, which means cupboard space is precious, refrigeration is limited, and nobody needs seventeen bottles of ingredients to make one drink.
Aft Deck Society is about learning the tricks that make great cocktails practical aboard: what bar gear you actually need, and what you absolutely don’t, along with smart substitutions and ingredients that earn their space. Fee Foam instead of raw egg white. Juices chosen with shelf life in mind. Freeze lemon and lime wedges ahead so they’re ready when you need them. Simple techniques that make a drink look and taste rather sophisticated without turning the galley into a chemistry laboratory.
That’s really the philosophy behind the book: fancy cocktails that aren’t actually fancy. A little preparation, a few clever shortcuts and the right ingredients can produce something beautiful without filling half the boat with bottles, gadgets and perishables.
“Aft Deck Society taught me that I didn’t need a fully stocked bar to make a really good cocktail aboard. I needed a few smart ingredients, a couple of tricks and considerably less stuff.” Jeff, Savary Island, BC
Teak Table
Teak Table is your elegant guide to creating beautiful, relaxed meals onboard, complete with smart ingredient substitutions and practical solutions for when you can’t get to a store, so every gathering on the water feels intentional and effortlessly memorable.
Then there is Teak Table, which celebrates my favourite time of day aboard. The anchor is down, the dinghy is back, wet towels are hanging somewhere they probably shouldn’t be, and people begin drifting toward the table. A bowl of something appears. Then another. Someone sits down. Someone from the boat next door comes over. Dinner, originally planned for seven, quietly becomes irrelevant.
Teak Table is about those easy gatherings, the snacks, small plates, sit-down meals, drinks and little rituals that happen around a boat table. It’s less about entertaining and more about gathering, which I increasingly think is one of the great pleasures of boating.
“Teak Table stays on our boat all summer. It has food stains, bent corners and fingerprints all over it, which is probably the best review I can give a book.” Tracy, Vancouver, BC
Apparently, I’ve Written Some Very Good Gifts
One thing I’ve heard repeatedly at signings is, “I’m buying this for someone.” A boating friend. A sister. The people whose boat they visit every summer. Someone who has just bought their first boat. And I hadn’t really thought about the books that way when I wrote them.
But they’re particularly good hostess gifts. If someone invites you aboard for dinner or, even more generously, for a weekend, a book is a lovely way to say thank you. It won’t wilt, it doesn’t need refrigeration, and your host doesn’t have to find permanent storage for another decorative anchor.
They’re also an easy holiday gift for that notoriously difficult creature: the boater who already has everything.
All three books are available on Amazon, which has another considerable advantage at this time of year: fast delivery. You can buy a thoughtful boating gift without putting on shoes, finding parking or entering a shopping mall in December.
I consider this an excellent use of technology.
Three Books, One Idea
The funny thing is that when I look at the books together now, I don’t really see three separate subjects. I see one idea running through them all.
Make good food. Invite people aboard. Use the good dishes.
Boating gives us extraordinary scenery and wonderful adventures, but some of the memories I treasure most are much smaller than that: friends arriving in a dinghy, something delicious coming out of the galley, dogs wandering around under the table, everyone laughing and the light slowly disappearing from the anchorage while nobody pays much attention to the time.
Perhaps that’s why I’ve enjoyed the book signings so much. I thought I would be sitting there talking about my books.
Instead, I’ve spent most of the time talking about why we love being on our boats.
And really, that’s what the books were about all along.
