John sailed around Cape Horn literally the day I was born - January 25, 1984 - and he's recently been a mentor of mine. All of his books are on this list, but this is a good technical one mixed with storytelling like only he can, to get you started.

An awesome technical book for ideas to fiddle with the boat, but also a great rainy-day read, as Mate is hilarious in his descriptions! One that permanently occupies bookshelf space on our boat.