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John believes that AIS person overboard beacons are the biggest advance in person overboard (POB) recovery in his lifetime.
That said, we have recently discover two issues that meant that for much (maybe most) of the first season after we fitted them to the Spinlock lifejacket/harnesses that we wear at pretty much all times when underway, they would not have self-activated.
And while most of the fault lies with us, our experience does bring to light two potential problems that others relying on the auto-activation features of the MOB1 beacon from Ocean Signal, particularly those who bought before mid 2018, need to be aware of.
Colin Speedie
Nov 2, 2018
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Colin carries on with the story of their 2018 cruise: A nerve jangling approach, deserted anchorages, a spooky abandoned village and managing a boat mechanical problem of the type that seem to plague us all sooner or later—a tale of real cruising.
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We write a lot about safety here at AAC: person overboard, storm survival, fire at sea, and so on.
All important stuff but we do worry about how this all relates to our primary goal here at Attainable Adventure Cruising of helping you go cruising.
So, here’s how John and Phyllis balance safety and actualy getting out there.
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So now that we have bought AIS Person Overboard Alarms, all is safe and good, right? No, not really. We also need to make sure that we are going to get an alarm on the boat that will set a rescue in motion. And that’s a lot more complex than just relying on a beep from our AIS receiver or plotter. But never fear, John has done the research, come up with a good solution, sailed with it for a season, and even made a video of a live alarm test.
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There are few subjects that offshore sailors like to discuss and argue about more than which is the best storm survival strategy and related gear. But it’s time to stop the debate because it’s a solved problem.
Colin Speedie
Oct 8, 2018
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Colin carries on with his tale of an unsurprisingly unpleasant crossing to Newfoundland with a surprisingly pleasant landfall.
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John has long advocated for preventers rigged from the boom well outboard to the bow as the only right way. We now have solid engineering, and a tragedy, to show how important this is.
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Earlier in the summer, John wrote a rigging tips post, which was popular and also spurred several members to share more really useful tips. A win, win. So here’s another post in the same vein.
Colin Speedie
Sep 22, 2018
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The first of Colin’s voyaging articles on their 2018 season cruising Atlantic Canada.
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The most common reason for yacht abandonment at sea is being capsized by a “rogue wave”. But is “rogue” a good description of these boat-killing waves? And are there things we can do to reduce roll-over risk?
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Based on the great comments from experts on a previous post, Phyllis and John have substantially changed their thinking on fighting a fire aboard.
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John links to a must-read article on hull design for heavy weather and highlights a couple of really important things he learned from it.
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The single biggest bitch we hear about battery monitors is that they are always wrong. John shares how to fix that and make your batteries last a lot longer too.
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Being able to accurately monitor our batteries is a vital function for all cruisers, but which of the multitude of systems offered should we buy and install? John defines the functions we actually need, and then recommends a monitor.
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After recommending the Lewisporte Marina to a number of cruisers looking to leave their boat in Newfoundland over a winter, John and Phyllis finally get a chance to visit Lewisporte themselves…for the second time in John’s case.
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