AIS—See And Be Seen

by Colin May 1, 2009
How can we be sure they'll see us?

One thing that most sailors dread is poor visibility. Throw in high levels of shipping traffic and you have a perfect recipe for sleepless nights.

It Ain’t Necessarily So

by Colin February 18, 2010
Channel 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.

Save Our Lighthouses

by Phyllis April 9, 2010
The lighthouse at Andenes, Norway.

I can’t imagine that there are many sailors out there who don’t share John’s and my fascination with lighthouses—walking around them, climbing them, photographing them, reading about what it was like to take care of them—we don’t seem to tire of it. However, in Canada, the USA and the UK, and I’m sure in other [...]

Anatomy Of An Accident

by John December 3, 2010
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It was 4:00 am on a black early morning anchored at Cape Lookout Harbour when Phyllis and I were awoken by a crash from up forward followed by a sickening scraping sound. A quick look out the companionway showed the outline of another sailboat reversing away from our bow. The outline looked a lot like [...]

Chart Plotters And Autopilots, Never The Twain Should Meet

by John December 17, 2010
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On Morgan’s Cloud we don’t hand steer much: approaching and leaving a wharf, anchoring and hauling the anchor, transiting an intricate channel, or in the presence of a lot of other boat traffic; that’s about it. We find that by using our autopilot we are left with more time and focus to navigate, keep a [...]

Things Are Different Now

by Phyllis July 9, 2011
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[Written July 1st] In a previous post I mentioned a few things that have changed in Greenland over the 16 years we’ve been voyaging up here: less ice, more English, more sailboats, earlier cruising season, and a busier capital city due to oil exploration.