by John
on May 23, 2013
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For years people have asked us to write a book on offshore voyaging. Our answer has always been, “we already have”. After all, there are some 650 posts on this site averaging around 1000 words each—about the size of War and Peace!
But the problem with that answer is that no matter how well a web site is categorized and indexed, the blog style of writing that works so well for the day to day process of imparting information, inspiring debate, and just plain entertaining, does not result in a book that you can read serially to get to grips with our way of voyaging.
Continue reading »
by John
on May 21, 2013
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A Race For Real Sailors My post on the rebuild of the Bluenose II attracted a good readership, so I’m thinking that some of you might be interested in learning more about the series of races that the original Bluenose was built to win. A series that was inspired by the desire of working schooner [...]
by John
on May 19, 2013
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This post is a shameless plug for a friend. But what the hell, if you can’t abuse your position for a friend, who can you abuse it for? Shelly and Dave are live-aboard sailors on their beautiful, and beautifully maintained, Apogee 50 Cadence, currently headquartered at Charleston, South Carolina, where we met them the first [...]
by John
on May 16, 2013
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Over the years I have been a member of several yacht clubs and I have enjoyed the benefits provided by these organizations and the opportunities to meet new people and make new friends. On the other hand, I have always been a little uncomfortable with the elitism that most yacht clubs imply by their requirements [...]
by John
on May 12, 2013
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I’m working on the specification for the Adventure 40 interior arrangement and that process has got me thinking about what design criteria go into making a good voyaging boat interior. This is an area where I feel that I’m well qualified since, so far, I have spent approximately 30% of my 61-years living afloat and [...]
by John
on May 10, 2013
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You, our readers, have long asked for the ability to edit your own comments after you have clicked on the “Submit” button, and now you can.
by John
on May 9, 2013
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My friend Wilson is the project manager of the “rebuild” of the Bluenose II, nearing completion in Lunenburg just a few minutes away from our base camp here in Nova Scotia. He was kind enough to give me a tour today.
by Colin
on May 6, 2013
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Land people sometimes ask what we cruisers do out there in the dark in the middle of the ocean. You don’t keep going all night, do you? Yes, we keep sailing. Don’t you just go to bed? No, we have to keep a watch out at all times. What for—surely there’s nothing out there? Well not a [...]
by John
on May 3, 2013
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I really enjoy running this web site. In fact, more and more each month. And one of the things that I have enjoyed lately is the participation of trained engineers like Eric, Chris, John and AAC Technical Correspondent, Matt Marsh. (If I have missed anyone, please speak up.) The cool thing about these engineers’ participation [...]
by John
on April 27, 2013
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I sometimes suffer from an affliction I have come to call Gerbil Brain. I’m sure none of you are thinking that this refers to the size of my brain are you? No, I thought not.
by John
on April 26, 2013
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Welcome to our first AAC Sponsor News, a series of posts that will appear about six times a year on what the companies that support this site are doing.
by John
on April 23, 2013
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Just about the most common suggestion to improve the Adventure 40 that we receive is to fit some kind of electric or hybrid diesel/electric drive. And, I myself, up to a few years ago, thought that diesel electric would become a viable alternative for voyaging sailboats that would solve the age old problem of matching [...]
by Phyllis
on April 21, 2013
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I have to admit that I was leery about writing this review of Carolyn Shearlock’s and Jan Irons’ fresh-off-the-press cookbook, since John and I do a lot of cooking, both on and off the boat, and are a long way down the gustatory road from making casseroles with condensed mushroom soup and dried onion soup [...]
by Colin
on April 18, 2013
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Some of my favourite anchorages are strongly tidal, a perverse eccentricity you may think. But I love the living feeling of the boat as she swings to the new tide, and the ever-changing view scratches my curiosity constantly and gives me a heightened sense of place. Other than that, tidal anchorages only offer endless possibilities [...]
by Matt
on April 15, 2013
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It’s often said that offshore sailing is much harder on the boat than lake or inshore sailing. Surely, we can quantify that statement and determine whether or not it’s true. Spoiler alert: It’s true. Oh man, is it ever true.
by John
on April 13, 2013
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Question: How do you make great travel photographs? Answer: F8 and be there.
by John
on April 11, 2013
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by John
on April 9, 2013
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We got up this morning to find a message from our security monitoring service, Sucuri, with the news that Attainable Adventure Cruising had been hacked. We immediately took the site down in case there was any risk involved to you, our readers. The good news is that there was not. The hack simply modified our [...]
by John
on April 9, 2013
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by Colin
on April 6, 2013
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Left to my own devices I could happily be a lazy guy, but that’s by no means a good thing to be when you’re in charge of a boat. When running charter boats that are in daily use, daily, weekly and monthly maintenance check lists are absolutely de rigeur to ensure that, random mechanical failure apart, the boat [...]
by Colin
on April 2, 2013
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by John
on April 1, 2013
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This morning we have a very exciting announcement from AAC-Labs, the research arm here at Attainable Adventure Cruising Ltd World Headquarters. After a six month intense project made possible by funding from the Government of Canada, The US National Science Foundation, and the European Union, we are pleased to announce the formulation of a set [...]
by John
on March 27, 2013
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I have been thinking about safely a lot lately. I guess that stands to reason, given that I’m in the middle of a series of posts on person overboard prevention—not to speak of the fact that I had a very nasty accident a few months ago—and, up until a couple of days ago I was [...]
by John
on March 25, 2013
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I have to admit, I have been procrastinating about writing posts about the Adventure 40 systems because this is the area where we will have to make some of the hardest and most unpopular decisions if we are going to produce a viable, reliable, fast, strong and comfortable offshore voyaging sailboat for less than US$200,000, [...]
by Phyllis
on March 22, 2013
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by John
on March 17, 2013
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by John
on March 16, 2013
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This post only applies to the few hundred of our readers who rely on Google Reader for notifications when we publish new content here at AAC. Those of you who receive an email when we post need read no further.
by Colin
on March 14, 2013
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by Colin
on March 11, 2013
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Regular readers of this site will know that I take a more than passing interest in fuel quality and our dependence on engine reliability. I believe that these are matters that go to the heart of modern cruising. Therefore, I also believe that anything that can offer improvements in terms of engine reliability has got to [...]
by John
on March 9, 2013
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This story is apropos of not much at all, except that I think it’s amusing and I tell it at dinner parties where the audience seems to enjoy it. And, since I think of you, our readers, as friends and part of my community, I thought I would tell it here. Also, writing it makes [...]
by John
on March 7, 2013
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It’s strange. I have never had any interest in recreational fishing. When other voyagers talk about the cool gear they have that always hooks a fish on an ocean passage and how good the catch was to eat, all I can think of is the mess on deck. It’s not that I don’t like to [...]
