Obeying The Rules

by Colin October 19, 2009
Pèlerin in Loch Moidart

It has been something of a culture shock to be back in Cornwall, where the volume of boat traffic is on a completely different level to the western isles of Scotland. Up there other yachts really are few and far between, whereas sometimes around the Falmouth area we may be altering course for another yacht [...]

Safety By Reason, Not Rote

by John December 19, 2009
And loaded into the dinghy.

We spent a month taking care of Polaris, a sailboat wintering over on the west coast of Greenland. Before he left for home, Michael (owner of Polaris), Phyllis and I talked about managing risk, particularly as it related to falling overboard into the sub-freezing sea water there.

Keeping The Water Out

by Colin July 3, 2010
Rainy Night In Spain From Boat Cockpit

After nearly 20 years of going North, our decision for 2010 was to head South in search of new horizons and the sun. Last year in the Hebrides was wonderful, but when the weather broke in August we were glad to move on, and we know we’ll be back one day.

The Most Dangerous Thing On A Boat

by Phyllis July 31, 2010
Calendar page

Long gone are the days when sailors could drift with the wind and the tide, without worrying about the demands of bureaucracy. It’s now a rare country that doesn’t impose limits on how long foreign sailors can stay, with the added requirement in some jurisdictions (the U.S. for example) to phone in whenever you move [...]

Always Have A Way To Rest

by John August 26, 2010

There is so much about this story that worries me that it is hard to know where to start. A single-handed sailor abandoned his boat because he was totally exhausted from three days of hand steering, not because there was anything wrong with the boat.

Keeping The Water Out #2

by Colin February 2, 2011
A motor boat negotiates its way around floating logs, British Columbia

When we were formulating our long-term list of places to visit during our cruising life, the Pacific northwest was high on our list. And having spent Christmas and New Year on the shores of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, we can confidently say that as a cruising ground it has now gone well up the [...]

First Aid, Prevention Is Better Than Cure

by John June 1, 2011
JHH_4830-1_thumb.jpg

Even on a gentle sailing day like this, the loads on a offshore sailboat are substantial and deserve respect. While updating our first aid skills we have been lucky enough to spend time with two doctors who both sail and, in addition, have a lot of emergency room trauma experience. They confirmed one of the [...]

Emergency Tillers—Easier Said Than Done

by Colin May 2, 2012
Emergency tiller 2

At the beginning of each working season we used to take our old boat out on a really breezy day and push the boat hard to check that everything was in good working order. Whilst we had run through our winter maintenance schedule with great care, winter always seemed to find a chink in our [...]