The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site
Some years ago Colin and John explored whether or not a seamanlike offshore boat could be had for less than US$100,000. Colin and Louise have just proved we can, but there are things to know.
The good folks over at the Ocean Prediction Center have a feature on their weather-maps page to cycle through weather maps for the last 3, 7, or 14 days. A great way to study how systems are moving and evolving over time in the area we plan to cruise or the ocean we plan to […]
A few weeks ago I wrote a Tip pointing out that the “unlimited” air time package for Iridium GO! exec was not actually unlimited and therefore I recommended staying with the truly unlimited package available on the original Iridium GO!. I have now dug into this in a series of emails with Craig and Matt […]
I have repeatedly recommended looking at forecaster-generated weather maps, as well as GRIBs, to get an overall understanding of how weather systems, and particularly fronts, which are not drawn on GRIBs, are developing. But wait, lately some of the GRIB-viewing tools have added AI-generated fronts. So can we now not bother to go through the […]
A follow-up, with some significant changes, to our article on a failed Spade anchor.
In the last few weeks I have been getting a series of emails from Battle Borne aggressively promoting sale pricing on their lithium batteries, see the above. As far as I can see, these are batteries that don’t have any way to communicate with external charging sources or even a way to inform you that […]
I was very sad to read of the recent death of a crew member on the Salty Dog Rally. According to this article by Don Street, the cause may have been, at least partly, dehydration from seasickness. And Don suggests how that could possibly have been avoided: a seasickness medication delivered by suppository. Based on […]
A few weeks ago I wrote an article on renewables in which I opined that the days of wind generators are, for most cruising usage profiles, over. Too much windage, too much noise, in return for less generated electricity, particularly when it matters, than many people believe. The interesting thing is I got surprising little […]
Which hardware and software should we use for weather downloading and analysis? Lots of good stuff out there. Here’s how to choose.
Very few boats have a good automated bilge pump and flooding alarm system. Let’s fix that.
I’m as concerned about climate change as anyone, and maybe more than most, but obfuscation and pretengineering does not help us get to a sustainable future. A good example is the way that electric-drive vendors use horsepower when talking about the diesel engine they want to replace and kilowatts when talking about their offerings. You […]
When an anchor many of us have come to trust over two decades fails catastrophically, it’s time to think about why and what we can learn.
A few years ago I got interested in efficient motorboats and wrote several articles on the subject. At the time there were almost none around, with the exception of the FPBs from our friends Steve and Linda Dashew that cost millions, and a first try from a budding designer in New Zealand that still cost […]
It’s comforting to believe that weather forecasts are always right, but we all know that’s not true. Here’s how to assess the chances that a given forecast will be wrong in a bad way.
There has been a lot of excitement recently about the release of a new alternator regulator that takes direct aim at the WakeSpeed WS500‘s position as the only truly smart regulator, primarily because it measures the current (amperage) that goes into the battery and then acts on that information, rather than making a bunch of […]
Phyllis and I will be away on vacation (holiday) next week, RV camping with my daughter and her family.
There’s a headline to provoke screams and tearing of hair. After all, the new Iridium GO! Exec is 40 times faster than the original GO! and only twice the price, so it’s gotta be the the better deal…right? And you can get unlimited data with the original GO! from lots of places for $154.95/month and […]
John explains one of the most important criteria for selecting an offshore voyaging boat, and one of the most ignored.
Colin and Louise serve up a master class on delivering an older and long-unsailed boat through difficult waters and adverse weather, and even have fun doing it.
So far in this series of chapters we have been looking at the benefits and drawbacks of the renewable options. Now let’s pull it all together.
Every so often, someone sends me a link to this article, originally published in Professional Boat Builder and repeated at Sailing Anarchy, that starts with the line: Lithium-ion batteries start fires. First off, the author does not differentiate between lithium cobalt oxide (the battery type in your phone) and lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO), the chemistry […]
As I write, the North Atlantic is a weather hot-mess with hurricanes and gales dotted all over the map, and yet all the models are predicting an incredible run of settled early fall weather and light winds for Nova Scotia, extending out ten days or more. What’s going on? We in Nova Scotia are falling […]
Can we replace diesel fuel generation (main engine or separate) with wind, solar and/or hydrogenerators? Yes, but there’s stuff to know to avoid wasted money and disappointment.
It’s tempting to think that the more cool stuff a boat has, the better she is for cruising, but that approach can make the boat slow and uncomfortable. Eric explains how to tell when adding gear has gone too far.