Traveling by Book : Armchair guides can take you just about anywhere and teach you almost anything nautical.

You don’t have to ship out to sea to visit exotic ports. All you have to do is curl up with a good book.

Want to cruise the Mediterranean? Try Lin and Larry Pardey’s “Seraffyn’s Mediterranean Adventure.”

Or how about a voyage through the Baltic? Then stow away with Roger Foxall in “Sailing to Leningrad.”

Pick your location and if you can get there by boat, chances are someone has done it--and he or she has probably written a book about it.

The same is true for nautical subjects, whether it be tying knots, trimming sails or forecasting the weather. Name the subject, and if you look hard enough, you can find an armchair guide written by expert mariners eager to share their hard-won wisdom with you.

Boating books are big business, and even during the recession, when boat sales have plummeted, nautical publications are holding their own.

“I have sold more boating books than ever,” says Debra Raeber, owner of Lido Book Shoppe in Newport Beach. “People can’t afford the boat, but they buy the book.”

Raeber’s shop in Lido Village carries one of the largest selection of boating books in Orange County, as well as dozens of boating magazines. She estimates that between books in stock and those on order, she has hundreds of nautical titles. And during the recent convention of the American Booksellers Assn. in Anaheim, Raeber browsed the booths in search of more.

“We order all the time,” she says, “and at the ABA I was busy ordering some old classics. We carry everything from International Marine (an imprint of McGraw-Hill) and whenever they get a new book, they automatically send me five,” she says.

Her collection ranges from $3.95 paperbacks on knot-tying to $100 art books of nautical paintings. In between, there’s everything from how-to guides on cruising with children to weighty tomes on varnishing brightwork.

Publishers of nautical books range from Random House and W.W. Norton to Sheridan House and Mystic Seaport Museum. A spokesperson for Sheridan, which specializes in nautical books, estimates that the company issues about 25 new titles a year. Sheridan’s current catalogue lists about 200 nautical books; one of the newest is called “Total Loss,” which includes accounts by 40 people who have survived the loss of a yacht at sea.

Survival books are popular with readers, and one of the classics, “117 Days Adrift,” by Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, is being reissued by Sheridan House for $14.95. “Survive the Savage Sea” by Dougal Robertson is also available from Sheridan for the same price. The book, which was made into a recent TV movie, tells how the Robertson family battled 20-foot waves and marauding sharks while drifting for 37 days in the Pacific in a fiberglass dinghy.

Boaters also like to read about unusual voyages or unusual people who have set out on fantastic sailing adventures. One of the current bestsellers at Lido Book Shoppe is “Maiden Voyage” by Tania Aebi, who as a teen-ager sailed around the world alone in a 26-foot boat.

Many Orange County boaters mention the Aebi book as a favorite. “I thought it was a great story,” says Shannon Aikman, a Newport Beach sailor who is past president of the Women’s Ocean Racing Sailing Assn.

Aebi, a rebellious student who wanted to be a writer but did not want to attend college, made a deal with her father: If he would use the college tuition money to buy her a small boat, she would sail the boat around the world, writing about her voyage as she went along.

In 1985, the 19-year-old Aebi set sail from New York to Bermuda on the 650-mile first leg of her voyage. The trip was beset by mechanical failures, but Aebi did not quit. By the time the voyage ended in November of 1987, she had mastered celestial navigation, piloting and mechanics, and she had survived intense loneliness, violent storms, a capsize and a collision at sea.

Linda Yuskaitis, former executive editor of Sea magazine, cites the Aebi book as one of three all-time favorites. Yuskaitis, an Irvine resident who used to review nautical books for the Orange County-based boating magazine, says her other two favorites are Steven Callahan’s “Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea,” and Skip Novak’s “One Watch at a Time: Around the World with Drum on the Whitbread Race.”

“All three books illustrate why it is important to have a healthy respect for the sea,” she says. “It is fascinating to read about people who did these things and survived.”

John Malley, who has been boating for more than 30 years, has a collection of about 100 nautical books and he says he’s read them all. Which ones does he recommend? “Dove,” by Robin Graham, another incredible tale of a teen-age circumnavigation in a small boat. Why?

Because Malley, owner of Dana Harbor Yacht Sales and Dana Harbor Yacht Charters, says he is often asked how far you can travel in small boats. “And in ‘Dove’ he (Graham) was in this little 24-foot Lapworth. He did something beyond the normal on a very small craft. Just like people ride bicycles across the U.S., you can take a small boat long distances.”

Ian Bruce, president of Newport Sailing Club, has a different recommendation for the 300 members of his club. Bruce, a retired ship’s captain suggests that his students read--and study--”The Annapolis Book of Seamanship,” by John Rousmaniere.

“It’s absolutely excellent because it gets down to the basics,” Bruce says. “The problem with sailing books today is that they are a little bit like computer manuals--what is he really trying to say? John, who is a fine sailor and magnificent writer, leads you right in and shows you how. He gets right to the heart of the matter.”

A recommendation from Karen Prioleau, who teaches women’s offshore cruising classes at Orange Coast College, is “Heavy Weather Sailing,” by K. Adlard Coles. The book, illustrated with some terrifying pictures of storms at sea, is about the experiences of small boats in gales, hurricanes and survival storms. Prioleau says she likes the book because, “this guy is down there eating biscuits and not having gourmet food. A lot of these (yachting) writers tend to glamorize it.”

Although most nautical books, such as “Heavy Weather Sailing,” are nonfiction, there are a number of fictional sea stories that sell well too. “Seagulls in My Soup,” by well-known sailor Tristan Jones, is described by Sheridan House as “fictionalized fact” and includes encounters with terrorists and forgers.

At Lido Book Shoppe, one of the most popular fiction books among boaters, according to Debra Raeber, is “The Truelove,” a historical novel by Patrick O’Brien, “one of the greatest storytellers afloat,” according to the New York Times Book Review. The book, set in the South Pacific in the early 19th Century, is “a swirl of nautical detail, unalloyed, unapologetic and absolutely right,” according to the Times.

The book is the 15th in a series that attracted quite a following. “People love them,” says Raeber. “During the boat show we sold piles and piles.”

Cruising Catalina. A how-to seminar on the coves and anchorages of Catalina will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday at the Orange Coast College Sailing Center, 1801 W. Pacific Coast Highway, Newport Beach. Topics include history, weather, navigation, anchoring, hiking and diving. Cost is $17.50. For information call (714) 645-9412.

Olympic Hopeful. A fund-raiser for Olympic hopeful Lanee Butler of Dana Point will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Dana Point Yacht Club, 24707 Dana Drive. Butler is ranked No. 1 in the nation in women’s sail-board competition. For information, call (714) 373-WIND.

Goin’ Fishing. You don’t need to bring your rod and reel to go fishing at Dana Wharf Sportfishing on Wednesday. Just sign up for the 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. fishing class and the instructors will provide everything else. The class is offered by the Dana Point Harbor Youth and Group Facility and costs $20 for adults and $15 for children. For information, call (714) 661-7122.