tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:36:43 +0000We post new content here first and then periodically file it on our site by subject.http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/info@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)Blogger193125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-8502753996007533879Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:36:00 +00002010-03-11T11:36:43.953-04:00 Steve Dashew over at SetSail has just published some interesting photographs of, and comments on, an Ovni. This is the type of boat that our European Correspondent, Colin Speedie has written about extensively here at AAC. Steve has also been writing an interesting series about picking the route that he and Linda will use to get back to North America from the UK. He even gave us a nice plug (http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/03/ovni-photographs-at-setsail.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-6427224915600615604Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:47:00 +00002010-03-08T15:52:38.059-04:00[In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series we reprinted the first two parts of an article of mine on navigation (that Cruising World Magazine published some years ago) as an introduction to an upcoming series of posts on the new navigation and communications gear that we installed on Morgan’s Cloud during our recent refit. Here is Part 3 (edited a bit for brevity).] Although we are not Luddites http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/03/knowing-where-its-at-part-3.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-1585960150048606450Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:49:00 +00002010-03-06T16:52:45.346-04:00Question: Currently tackling the plumbing system and would like to know if you have any other photos of how you use PVC piping. I'm very interested in using this as often as possible. How do you make the connection between the rigid pipe and the fitting that may be on your holding tank or other device that you are plumbing? Do you use some type of short flexible connector? Answer: Sorry we don’thttp://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/03/pvc-for-plumbing.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-4711440107331167406Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:22:00 +00002010-03-06T10:22:36.064-04:00Video seems to be the communication modality of choice these days. We’ve dabbled with it but the results, so far, are so bad we have decided to spare you, our readers (and viewers), from the results. For now, we’re going to stick with what we know—still photography. However, there are other cruisers out there who are much more developed in this area than we are, including a couple who has been http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/03/virtually-down-under.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-8632438167622035230Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:04:00 +00002010-03-04T11:04:53.538-04:00We have been writing on the blog lately about ways to go voyaging in older less expensive boats. The other night we had dinner with a young couple that bought a good quality cruising boat that had gone ashore in a blow and sunk with a large hole in it. A year of long days repairing, refitting and sourcing second hand gear have yielded a strong voyaging boat. They plan to set out from Nova http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/03/another-way-to-go-cruising-relatively.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-7102787834414204108Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:52:00 +00002010-03-03T13:52:49.675-04:00 We were out walking on the foreshore here in Nova Scotia a few days ago and came across this remnant of what I’m guessing was a commercial wharf. Clearly it had been in the water for quite a while before it fetched up here in a winter blow. Of course I can’t guarantee that Morgan’s Cloud would survive a collision with it, but I’m pretty confident that it would not sink us, or perhaps even http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/03/another-reason-we-have-aluminum-boat.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-6860143701791992092Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:36:00 +00002010-03-02T09:36:53.969-04:00“Practical” the commenter on this post and this one too is Darrell Nicholson, editor of Practical sailor. He makes a very good point about how little you really need to go cruising safely and he knows whereof he speaks too: Some years ago, when we were still writing for Cruising World Magazine, Herb McCormick, then the editor—one of the best in the business—moved us to a new editor named http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/03/unmasking-practical.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-5558409820527620831Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:52:00 +00002010-02-27T22:21:31.773-04:00[In Part 1 of this series we reprinted the first part of an article of mine on navigation (that Cruising World Magazine published some years ago) as an introduction to an upcoming series of posts on the new navigation and communications gear that we installed on Morgan’s Cloud during our recent refit. Here is Part 2 (edited a bit for brevity).] So what is it specifically that we do to make sure http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/02/knowing-where-its-at-part-2.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-4170145743091122185Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:05:00 +00002010-02-25T17:07:31.712-04:00 Over the years we have received numerous questions from readers asking whether it is better to buy a newer more expensive sailboat or to restore an older less expensive boat. We usually recommend buying a newer boat as, in the long run, the price will probably come out to about the same, so why not have a newer boat and save a huge amount of time and labour? However, we have come across http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/02/restoring-30-year-old-sailboat-what-it.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-4062152724017335395Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:59:00 +00002010-02-22T16:59:25.508-04:00[Colin Speedie’s post “It ain't necessarily so” on the dangers of over reliance on electronic navigation aids, which really struck a cord with me, reminded me of an article of mine that Cruising World Magazine published some years ago on the same subject. I have also been planning for some time to write a series of posts on the new navigation and communications gear that we installed on Morgan’shttp://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/02/knowing-where-its-at-part-1.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-4174366023940094585Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:31:00 +00002010-02-19T18:04:23.889-04:00Question [edited for brevity]: Four of us sailed my 36-ft Moody Halberdier from Buffalo, New York to Rimouski, Quebec in Oct./Nov. last year. The biggest problem was cold feet. Sailing boots with extra socks did not do the trick in -5°C weather. Rubber boots with liners were OK. I'm planning a trip to Northern Labrador next summer. Any advice on footwear? Answer: Keeping feet (and hands) warm andhttp://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/02/warm-feet-please.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-6549302182019112519Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:14:00 +00002010-02-18T14:14:12.533-04:00Question: [Edited for brevity] I'm thinking about sailing to Greenland from my home in Germany. My boat is a very sound 33-foot steel sloop, which I have singlehanded often. The natural way to go to Greenland from the German coast seems to be to use the stepping stones: Norway and/or Scotland/Shetlands, thence to Faroe and Iceland and on to Greenland. But I will be starting as early as the http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/02/novel-but-probably-smart-way-to-cross.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-5338404255009369783Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:01:00 +00002010-02-18T07:36:45.486-04:00Boreal 44 under sail, courtesy of J-F Eeman A couple of weeks ago I posted a piece on the popularity of aluminium as a boatbuilding material here in France, that included a brief comment on the recently launched Boreal 44. This attracted a considerable amount of interest amongst readers, especially those fans of aluminium boats for adventure cruising. Happily it also attracted interest from http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/02/new-aluminium-boat-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Colin Speedie)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-2788822622963664823Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:16:00 +00002010-02-14T14:16:54.636-04:00A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the very sad loss of the Saga 40, Kantele, that occurred at St Eustatius in the Eastern Caribbean after a local park-supplied mooring failed and the boat went ashore. Today I came across this Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) interview with Gary Pittman, owner of Kantele. It makes pretty chilling listening and further reinforces our basic distrust of http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/02/more-on-mooring-failure-related-loss-of.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-1735504751728309723Sun, 14 Feb 2010 12:43:00 +00002010-02-14T08:43:52.128-04:00Question: Could you post detailed photos to your website of the wooden bezels you fitted to your ports to accept Plexiglas covers? Did you do the same for your hatches? We are losing the battle against condensation in Florida's current cold snap. Thanks! Answer: When we were battling condensation during our two winters in arctic Norway, we used plastic sheeting and weather-stripping to kludge a http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/02/morgans-cloud-refit-port-bezels.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-6299007596939563499Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:04:00 +00002010-02-12T15:21:46.436-04:00Channel marker, Arisaig, West Highlands In these days of hyper-accurate GPS navigation and deck mounted plotters it can sometimes seem like navigation has been reduced to no more than a video game. And it sometimes seems that more and more people are implicitly trusting what they see on a screen, having never known the nervous twitch that accompanied entering a new bolt hole in the days before http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/02/it-aint-necessarily-so.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Colin Speedie)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-7058770225303922858Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:08:00 +00002010-02-11T14:08:51.119-04:00 We have just published a photo essay on our recent trip to Greenland to caretake the Hutting 54, Polaris. Those of you who followed our posts during the trip will have seen about half of these shots, but only in a small size and before I properly processed and colour corrected them; something I could not do on the small laptop we were carrying. Once you have selected the Greenland Winter http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/02/greenland-winter-slide-show.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-7652222001859737559Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:44:00 +00002010-02-10T17:45:53.871-04:00Two of the more frequent requests we have been receiving lately are how to find crew or find a boat to crew on. So we decided to post what we know about this topic and then open it up for you to add to it. Below is a list of resources we’ve come across. Where we’ve received comments from readers on how well a service has worked for them, we’ve included those: http://www.worldcruising.com/forum/http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/02/finding-crew-finding-boat.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-6149308540695488939Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:52:00 +00002010-02-10T10:31:54.926-04:00 For those of you who followed our posts while we took care of the Hutting 54, Polaris, wintering over above the Arctic Circle in Greenland, the story and photographs continue on Michael and Martina’s (owners of Polaris) blog. The text is in German, but Michael’s photographs are beautiful and tell a great story in any language.Michael emails that all is well on Polaris, the sun is now well and http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/02/polaris-winter-continues.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-7257247613207184927Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:45:00 +00002010-02-03T15:45:13.016-04:00 On 28th December last year a beautiful Saga 40—an English design not to be confused with this boat—was lost when she went ashore at Sint Eustatius in the eastern Caribbean when a mooring provided for yachts by the local marine park, STENAPA, failed in what looks from the photograph to be benign conditions. As might be expected, Kantele’s owners blame the mooring provider for the loss and are http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/02/mooring-failure-loss-of-kantele.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-2638567722972584973Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:57:00 +00002010-01-23T17:01:07.099-04:00<!--StartFragment--> Robust aluminium constructionOver here in Europe many people choose an aluminium yacht for the excellent strength to weight ratio, and the sheer robustness of construction. As a result they are more and more the choice of long distance sailors, especially those heading for higher latitudes. Many of them are cruisers from well-known French yards – OVNi’s and Garcias probably http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/01/home-of-aluminium-boats.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Colin Speedie)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-4157383021148040036Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:59:00 +00002010-02-13T10:02:07.684-04:00This post has been archived to the main site. For fire blankets, please see Stuff That Works, Safety and for sump pumps, see Rants & Musings, Mechanical.http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/01/interesting-gear-on-miscellaneous.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-8792314983877687810Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:25:00 +00002010-01-14T15:33:31.999-04:00Glenarm marina looking out to Kintyre I’ve only ever seen one sailing magazine article by the great writer and sailor Jonathan Raban, but the first sentence may explain why – “Marina is a word like rubella – it sounds far nicer than the thing it describes”. And for many of them, maybe that’s the truth. Practical, convenient, yes, but it would be hard to describe what in many cases is just a boathttp://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/01/marinas-love-em-or-hate-em.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Colin Speedie)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-690690919418672495Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:22:00 +00002010-02-13T09:58:36.107-04:00This post has been archived to the main site. Please see Rants & Musings, Sailboat Design & Selection.http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/01/of-cockpits-wheelhouses-and-engine.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81466309740160072.post-6048704359443532530Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:03:00 +00002010-01-06T16:03:11.987-04:00 How come you can never find a taxi when you need one? And yes, that pulk with 90 lb of gear on it had to go up through the pass in the background. Lucky that there was a younger woman around to push from behind, otherwise I never would have made it.  As I write, there are cries of joy from the bathroom in our hotel room at Aasiaat as Phyllis has her first shower in a month. Posted http://morganscloud.com/aacblog/2010/01/taxi.htmlinfo@morganscloud.com (John and Phyllis)2