Those of you who read AAC regularly will will know that I’m no fan of the current state of the sailing magazine industry. Just how many charter-in-the-Virgin-Islands-with-cheesecake, so-we-can-sell a-bunch-of-advertising, articles do we need? Boring, boring, dull.
But there is at least one shining exception to the above jaundiced view: Ocean Navigator magazine, which has always stuck with its goal of providing real information, written by real seaman who actually go to sea.
If you are planning to go ocean sailing, or are already out there, we highly recommend subscribing, you won’t regret it.
Ocean Voyager
One of the most valuable benefits of subscribing is their annual Ocean Voyager issue. Last year’s included not one, but two, interesting interviews with experienced cruising couples and technical articles on everything from lifeline replacement to water makers.
Real Sailors
Ocean navigator is published by real sailors who actually get out there themselves, not some corporation with a bunch of other magazines in their stable ranging from Needlepoint Monthly to Muscle Cars for Boneheads.
And Alex (publisher) and Tim (editor) have their interests aligned with ours, unlike some spreadsheet jockey trying to squeeze the last piece of short term profit out of a group of magazines (and their long suffering editors) who would not know a decent offshore sailboat if it fell on him or her.
Weather Tutorials
While I’m on the subject, Ken McKinley, of Locus Weather, has been writing some really useful weather tutorial articles over at the Ocean Navigator blog. What I like about Ken’s pieces is that he clearly explains how big storms originate and relates that to the 500 Mb charts, which we think is an important subject for offshore sailors to have at least some understanding of.
Disclosure
We had a sandwich with Alex a couple of years ago and stuck him with the tab, Tim has been kind enough to mention and link to several of our posts, and they send us a copy of the magazine as a PDF from time to time. Other than that, we have not enjoyed any special benefits from Ocean Navigator.
