by Colin
on August 23, 2012
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Grippy soled, well-protected sandals One thing we have a ban on aboard Pèlerin is going around the decks with no shoes. Stubbed toes can easily be badly damaged, as I found out one night in a pitch-dark harbour when another yacht announced that they were coming alongside by the simple expedient of slamming straight into the [...]
by Phyllis
on August 9, 2012
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A while ago I wrote about how we keep our hands warm when sailing and a number of commentors mentioned they really like Sealskinz gloves. Well, when something gets that much good press, who are we to argue? So we went ahead and bought ourselves a pair of Chillblocker Sealskinz gloves. And yes, you all [...]
by Colin
on June 23, 2012
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Going through the medical kit Well it’s June again, so it’s time for us to pull out our medical kit, discard the out of date items and order up their replacements—more expense! Happily we’ve never had to use anything from the kit yet, but we know it’s only a matter of time before we do, [...]
by Phyllis
on June 6, 2012
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In our Warm Feet, Please post of several years ago, we mentioned that we had purchased Dubarry Ultima boots and, after several years, were impressed. At that time, however, we weren’t ready to commit to anything until we had given them a thorough testing.
by Phyllis
on March 3, 2012
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My spotty memory has struck again! The two products I describe below work great and I want to replace them (or order more) but the details have escaped me.
by Phyllis
on February 26, 2012
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Question [edited for brevity]: I did a quick search on your site, but didn’t find anything discussing foul weather gear. I’ve researched all lines and all levels of gear—West Marine, Gill, Henri Lloyd. I’d like to think this stuff may last me 10 to 15 years with proper care and avoiding snags anywhere on the [...]
by Phyllis
on February 6, 2012
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John and I have been ardent fans of Maui Jim sunglasses for many years and many pairs. Their glasses get ever lighter in weight and more comfortable and their lenses get ever better at cutting glare on the water (we prefer their super-thin polarized glass lenses in gray).
by Phyllis
on December 5, 2011
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In Part I of this two-part series I discussed how I determine what and how much of what to buy. After reading that post I’m sure most of you are shaking your heads at how much time and energy John and I put into food (not to mention writing this much about it!). However, having [...]
by Phyllis
on November 29, 2011
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A big part of preparing for an extensive northern trip such as the one we undertook this summer is provisioning. In this case, I had to provision for six months. Yikes! A number of people have asked me how I go about doing this, so here goes.
by Phyllis
on November 22, 2011
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I read an interesting book this summer called In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise by George Prochnik. One thing that I got out of the book is that noise in and of itself increases our vigilance response (a leftover from the days when we were prey). For example, when [...]
by Colin
on October 24, 2011
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We’ve discussed the thorny question of seasickness before here at Attainable Adventure Cruising, and all correspondents agreed that it is one of the most debilitating things that can happen to anyone at sea. As they say of seasickness sufferers, ‘first you don’t want to die, then you think you might die, then finally you want [...]
by Colin
on June 22, 2011
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It’s a funny thing, sleep, isn’t it—too much of it can make us sluggish, not enough and we can come close to collapse. Preparing for a passage, it’s vital to get enough rest in advance, but we find that’s one of the most difficult things to achieve. Resting well in the days before departure should [...]
by Phyllis
on March 20, 2011
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One of the most important factors in making safe seamanlike passages is getting as much rest as possible. And one of the most important factors in getting enough rest is having a proper seaberth.
by Phyllis
on January 3, 2011
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A while ago I wrote about how we keep our feet warm when sailing in colder climes. In this post I will address the issue of keeping our hands warm, which aren’t, unfortunately, as easy to please.
by Colin
on April 22, 2010
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As our planned departure date looms we’re as busy as ever finishing off the final touches, and putting aboard the last of the kit for the long haul. And one of the things we have left until the very last minute has been our medical pack, largely because we want all of our medicines and [...]
by Phyllis
on April 3, 2010
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I don’t know about the rest of you, but figuring out how to get bedding to fit the odd size and shape of boat bunks has been an ongoing battle for me.
by Phyllis
on February 1, 2010
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Question: 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 [...]
by John
on August 1, 2009
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Despite the solid win for Stugeron in our informal survey, I have had better luck with Gravol, which is available over the counter in most countries including Bermuda, Canada and the UK, but not the USA. I suspect that this exception is more to do with drug company marketing issues rather than regulatory ones since [...]
by John
on July 1, 2009
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In our informal survey our readers overwhelmingly voted for Stugeron as their remedy of choice for seasickness. The following comment from Attainable Adventure Cruising correspondent, Colin Speedie, is representative and especially useful in that he has had a lot of victims…err crew, to experiment on:
by John
on June 1, 2009
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Despite my somewhat opinionated tone in many of the articles on this site, there are very few things I feel that I’m really the absolute ultimate authority on. The exception is seasickness. Thirty-five years of blowing my dinner during the first 24 hours of almost every offshore passage gives me the right, I feel, to [...]
