Phyllis reviews Colin Speedie's new book, "A Sea Monster's Tale: In Search of the Basking Shark". If you enjoy Colin's writing on this site (and who doesn't?) you won't want to miss his book.

Many cruisers miss out on the most sheltered berths in a harbour, but it does not have to be that way. Master this one close-quarters boat-handling skill, and getting in and out of tight places, even with a wind blowing, becomes easy.

Phyllis and I are taking a 10-day holiday (vacation) while my daughter and our granddaughter are visiting. This will be our first holiday in two years from our six-posts-a-month publishing schedule and daily work in the comments and, to be frank, we need the break, particularly since the behind-the-scenes work here at AAC, including accounting, tax compliance, [...]

Colin writes about a cruise that didn't turn out as planned—something all cruisers will face at some point. All you can do then is pick yourself up and keep going. We saved this one from last season to motivate all us northern hemisphere cruisers to get stuff fixed and get out there.

During the some 35 years that John has owned offshore cruising boats, he has made some deeply stupid maintenance and gear decisions. Here's his latest blunder and what we can all learn from it.

Some of us write about extreme heavy weather survival at sea based on a few experiences accumulated over decades, combined with not a little guesswork and conjecture. And then there's Trevor. Few offshore sailors have even one-tenth the first-hand survival storm experience that Trevor shares in this article.

Anyone who goes to sea needs to read every word in this chapter with great care and attention.

In the last two chapters we looked at whether we even need a get-home option for an offshore motorboat and concluded we do, so we looked at six options. In this chapter John reveals his winner, and why.

There are benefits and drawbacks to all get-home backup power options for offshore motorboats, which makes this vital decision surprisingly difficult. John shines a bright light on the tradeoffs of each option.

When designing an offshore motorboat one of the first decisions we must make is what we intend to do if the main engine fails far from land or help. John takes a deep dive into this complex issue.

Colin carries on with his analysis of boat heating systems covering propane heaters and diesel furnaces, both forced air, and water circulation as well as radiators that harvest waste heat from the engine.

So how can we be sure whether or not heaving-to will result in a knock-down or roll-over in heavy weather? John tackles this difficult but vital question.

If your boat is not equipped and set up right, the most skilled crew in the world will have trouble coming alongside. John looks at 10 things you can change on your boat to make docking easy.

John sticks his neck out and gets right controversial but it's really all about seamanship...it's always all about seamanship.

You don't need to be heading for the high latitudes to appreciate the benefits of a boat heater. Just drying the boat out can be reason enough to make installing a heater worthwhile. But which type is best? Colin shines a light on the options.