Health/Comfort

Considering a cockpit enclosure? Building one that a real sailor can love takes a deep fixation on getting the details right.

"Morgan's Cloud" with a cockpit enclosure? Can it be true? Yes it is, and here's the why and the how. This will help you decide if you want one too.

Guests onboard "Sila" have been surprised by just how good the food is. Molly shares tips for safe food storage and tasty meal preparation without refrigeration.

Molly shares lessons she learned about provisioning while sailing over 36,000 miles over three years, from Europe, around South America, back to Europe and home to New England.

Family happiness and crew morale are vital for a successful voyage. During the last three years, while living aboard and sailing 36,000 miles on "Sila", a Boréal 47, Molly Barnes and her family have come up with "The Three Keys To Cruising Happiness".

For cold weather sailing we figure we have foul weather gear, the clothes to go under it, as well as boots and hats, pretty much sorted out, but gloves have remained a challenge...until now.

A little tip that can make a big positive change to your quality of life when voyaging in cold climates.

Phyllis shares tips about the gear we use that makes hiking such an enjoyable activity for us, from woodland trails in Nova Scotia to wilderness scrambles in Greenland to non-technical (small) mountain climbs in Norway.

One thing we have a ban on aboard Pèlerin is going around the decks with no shoes. Stubbed toes can easily be badly damaged, as I found out one night in a pitch-dark harbour when another yacht announced that they were coming alongside by the simple expedient of slamming straight into the side of us. Leaping [...]

A while ago I wrote about how we keep our hands warm when sailing and a number of commentors mentioned they really like Sealskinz gloves. Well, when something gets that much good press, who are we to argue? So we went ahead and bought ourselves a pair of Chillblocker Sealskinz gloves. And yes, you all [...]

Okay, you have your medical kit, but what about medical insurance? Colin discusses options in light of an injury he suffered when working on their boat.

In our Warm Feet, Please post of several years ago, we mentioned that we had purchased Dubarry Ultima boots and, after several years, were impressed. At that time, however, we weren't ready to commit to anything until we had given them a thorough testing. Well, we’ve used them now for 5 years and we’re still in love [...]

Question [edited for brevity]: I did a quick search on your site, but didn't find anything discussing foul weather gear. I’ve researched all lines and all levels of gear—West Marine, Gill, Henri Lloyd. I'd like to think this stuff may last me 10 to 15 years with proper care and avoiding snags anywhere on the [...]

John and I have been ardent fans of Maui Jim sunglasses for many years and many pairs. Their glasses get ever lighter in weight and more comfortable and their lenses get ever better at cutting glare on the water (we prefer their super-thin polarized glass lenses in gray). However, John’s last pair had a problem: [...]