Gale And Storm Preparation, At Anchor Or On A Mooring

by John September 1, 2009
A roller furling sail getting loose with the resulting shredding is one of the most common types of damage we see to sailboats on moorings during a blow. These Spinlock clutches are great, but when expecting a blow we always back them up by cleating the furling lines off.

We are on our mooring off our cabin in Nova Scotia with the remnants of tropical storm Danny heading our way. Last weekend it was Hurricane Bill* that passed close by giving us winds to 50 knots, even in this sheltered cove.

Lee Shores

by John September 18, 2009

Lee shore. These two words have struck terror into the hearts of sailors for centuries. And justifiably too, since it is generally not the sea that kills sailors but the hard bits around the edges.

Equipment And Rigging To Survive A Lee Shore

by John October 1, 2009

In the last post I wrote about the one and only time I have been caught on a lee shore in storm conditions. In this post I will cover the way we have equipped and rigged the present Morgan’s Cloud, using my still vivid memories of that storm, to give Phyllis and I, sailing double-handed, [...]

Storm Survival Secret Weapon: Your Engine

by John October 18, 2009
The engine room of aluminum sailboat Morgan's Cloud.

In Lee Shores I wrote about the storm I got caught in 20 years ago with Cape Hatteras under our lee. One of the key ingredients to our recipe for successfully weathering the storm was our engine. For example, without the engine ticking over the helmsperson would never have been able to keep the boat [...]

Summary And Conclusions For Heavy Weather Series

by John November 1, 2009

The best things about this series for me have been the amount I have learned, by discussing strategy and gear with other sailors and reading other authors, and the way the process of writing it has clarified my own thinking. Here is a summary of my conclusions and how they relate to our strategy on [...]

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.

Storm Tactics, Learning From The Best

by John September 22, 2010
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Tony and Coryn Gooch stopped by this summer in their lovely and beautifully maintained aluminum sloop Taonui. If you don’t know who they are, that is simply because they go out there on the ocean and do incredible things without fuss or drama. Like Tony deciding, when he was into “senior citizen” territory, that it [...]

Making Life Easier—Storm Jib

by Colin February 20, 2011
Will it soon be time to go for the storm jib? A windy day, Ria de Muros

Once a year we like to entertain our neighbours by hoisting our storm jib whilst we’re alongside. Not much new to be learned from it, but it does force us to get it out of the bag and give it a thorough check over for any signs of chafe or other damage. We have a [...]

Clear The Decks For Action

by John February 25, 2011
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I’m a big time fan of the Aubrey/Maturin series about the days of sailing warships. As often mentioned in these books, the best captains, the ones that brought their ships home in one piece and vanquished their foes at sea, were holy terrors for clear decks. Times have changed but the sea has not and [...]

Halloween Storm, Choosing an Anchorage—Part 1

by John November 4, 2011
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As I write, the still gale force remnants of the Halloween Storm of 2011 are howling in the rigging as Morgan’s Cloud tugs at her anchor and bucks to the chop here in Great Salt Pond at Block Island. I sometimes call cruising, particularly when tired and crotchety, “death by a thousand decisions”. And deciding [...]

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