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Attainable Adventure Cruising

The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

John Harries

John was born and brought up in Bermuda and started sailing as a child, racing locally and offshore before turning to cruising. He has sailed over 150,000 miles, most of it on his McCurdy & Rhodes 56, Morgan’s Cloud, including eight ocean races to Bermuda, culminating in winning his class twice in the Newport Bermuda Race. He has skippered a series of voyages in the North Atlantic, the majority of which have been to the high latitudes. John has been helping others go voyaging by sharing his experience for 25 years, first in yachting magazines and, for the last 20 years, as co-editor/publisher of AAC.

  • Espar D8 Forced Air Diesel Heater (8KW)

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    Espar D8 Forced Air Diesel Heater (8KW)

    After years of fighting with an unreliable diesel heater, we are very pleased with the Espar heater we installed in 2000. It is one of the bigger ones they make and keeps us toasty in all weather.

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  • Taming The Wimp Within

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    Taming The Wimp Within

    Fear, anxiety, call it what you will, most of us have it and going voyaging will trigger those feelings. But fear doesn’t have to spoil your cruise. John shares how he copes with his inner wimp.

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  • EchoPilot Forward Scan Sonar FLSII

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    We have found that having a forward scan sonar has made exploring in the high latitudes safer and more feasible. Instead of feeling our way along at 2 knots when off the charts, we can now travel confidently at 6 knots, since the forward scan reaches out up to 200 meters ahead. Also, the sounder […]

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  • Q&A: Getting Greenland Ice Charts By Satellite Phone

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    Question: What can you tell me about receiving Greenland ice charts by satellite phone?  Is it a good solution and more reliable than weather fax?

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  • Q&A: How Do We Get Treadmaster To Stick To Aluminum?

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    Question: We are having trouble getting our Treadmaster deck covering to stay stuck to our bare aluminum deck. What can you tell me about getting epoxy to stick to aluminum reliably?

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  • Disassembly And Refit Plans

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    Disassembly And Refit Plans

    It all started with six weeks of intense work last June stripping the deck for painting.  Every cleat, every track, every fitting and every hatch came off and slowly a 10’x20’ storage unit filled with boat bits.

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  • Avon Dinghy

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    Our 16-year old Avon dinghy may not be much to look at, but it just keeps on floating! The bottom is covered with patches necessary after many rocky beach haul ups, not to mention being used as a pusher boat to move growlers in Greenland, but the pontoons still hold air for at least a […]

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  • Greenland 2003

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    Greenland 2003

    Our last news letter was written from Isafjørdur on the northwest coast of Iceland where we were getting ready to cross Denmark Strait to Greenland. This comes to you from the Bras d’Or Lakes, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The intervening 2000 miles and seven weeks have been intense, rewarding, and yes, stressful too.

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  • Our Furthest North 2002

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    We last wrote from the west coast of Spitsbergen. From there we continued north visiting several anchorages, the most interesting being Virgohamna from where André left on his fatal attempt to reach the North Pole in a balloon. The dry Svalbard climate has preserved the remains of this expedition, and the slightly later Wellman attempt, […]

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  • Finnmark And Arrival In Svalbard (Spitsbergen), 2002

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    As I write this we are anchored in a small harbour formed by an old moraine, on the west coast of Spitsbergen, about a mile from the snout of a glacier. It is very different than Greenland in that the glaciers are much less active (smaller ice cap) and so we can get a lot […]

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  • The Dark Time, 2002

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    The sun has returned to North Norway and we are out sailing again, although there is little sign of spring yet: The locals say that if you can walk on the crust of the snow on June 15th it will be a late spring! Yesterday was our first sail of the season, a boisterous beat […]

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  • Slowing Down in Norway, 2001

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    Since our last newsletter, sent shortly after we arrived in Norway, our summer has evolved, some might say degenerated, into the slowest and most relaxing cruising we have ever done—a real contrast to our usual expedition style trips.

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