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Read more: Boat Heating—Part IIColin 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.
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Read more: Determining When Heaving-To Is DangerousSo 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.
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10 Ways to Make Your Boat Easier to Bring Alongside a Dock
74 CommentsReading Time: 8 minutesMembers
Read more: 10 Ways to Make Your Boat Easier to Bring Alongside a DockTen things you can change or add to your boat to make docking easy, including choosing the right fenders and lines.
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Read more: Bare Feet, Or NotJohn sticks his neck out and gets right controversial but it’s really all about seamanship…it’s always all about seamanship.
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Read more: Boat Heating—Part IYou 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.
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Rigging The Spring That Makes Docking Easy, Or an Alternative
83 CommentsReading Time: 7 minutesMembers
Read more: Rigging The Spring That Makes Docking Easy, Or an AlternativeAlternatives to an aft-running spring at the boat’s balance point, as well as how to determine where that magic aft spring fairlead should go if you decide to install one.
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Read more: Coming Alongside (Docking) in 4 Easy StepsNow we get to the good stuff: a step-by-step guide, with diagrams and video, that makes coming alongside easy, even short-handed and when the wind is up.
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Read more: 10 Tips to Make Coming Alongside (Docking) EasyThese tips, which we have developed over two decades of coming alongside double-handed in a 56-foot boat without a bow thruster, will take the stress out of docking and make it easy…even fun too.
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Read more: Introduction to Coming Alongside (Docking) Online BookThis Online Book on docking (coming alongside) will truly take the drama out of this everyday activity for cruisers.
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Read more: Transitioning From Heaved-to To a Series DrogueChanging survival strategies in the middle of a storm at sea is not something that any of us want to be faced with, but here are some thoughts from John about how that might be done safely.
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Read more: Series Drogue Durability ProblemsThere have been a couple of well-publicized cases of series drogues, based on Don Jordan’s research and design, deteriorating after as little as ten hours’ use in strong gale conditions. John investigates and shares what he intends to do to upgrade his drogue.
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Read more: John’s Thoughts & Photos—March 2017John is thinking about modern anchors, the Vendée Globe, winter storage, and why the heck is it so hard to sell Nova Scotia as a winter yachting destination?
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Read more: Cape Negro Island, Nova Scotia—A Fortuitous EncounterAn amazing coincidence provides a small glimpse into what life was like in the day on Cape Negro Island, Nova Scotia.
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The Right Tethers To Keep Us Aboard—Part 2, Construction and Hardware
84 CommentsReading Time: 5 minutesMembers
Read more: The Right Tethers To Keep Us Aboard—Part 2, Construction and HardwareIn the last chapter, John wrote about the two different types of tethers he and Phyllis use on Morgan’s Cloud. In this chapter he follows up with the details of how they build each type.
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Read more: Sailing With Sea MonstersLovers of Colin’s lyrical and entertaining articles have a treat coming: he has written a whole book about his decades of professional sailing and work in basking shark conservation.
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Read more: The Right Tethers To Keep Us Aboard—Part 1, A MixOur project to improve crew overboard prevention systems has been a long and winding three-year-to-traverse road. But we are nearly there. Here’s the first of two chapters on tethers.
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Read more: 8 Radar Use TipsColin and John have teamed up to share the fruits of some 70 years of combined radar use experience much of it in the foggiest (Atlantic Canada) and highest traffic (English Channel) areas of the world.
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Read more: Clearing Customs and Immigration, as a CruiserJohn takes a look at recent disturbing trends that could result in bad outcomes for us voyaging cruisers.
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Read more: Iridium Update 2017John takes a look at the latest news on Iridium satellite phones and GO!, some real world reports from users, and finishes with some solid purchase and usage recommendations.
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Read more: Three Tips to Make Your Cruising Boat Fault TolerantLet’s face it, cruising boats are horribly unreliable, and gear failures are the most common cruise-ruiner. But we can reduce the problems a lot by thinking about fault tolerance. Here are three real world examples you can use right now to make your boat better.
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Read more: 11 Tips for Safe Navigation With Phones and TabletsNavigating with tablets and phones is here to stay, but what are the dangers? And what can we do to make sure we don’t have an iThing-assisted wreck?
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Read more: Navigation in Fog—UnderwayColin has covered gear and preparation for navigating in fog. Now we get to the meat of it: what to do when underway and the visibility shuts down. Includes a vital section on the rules of the road in fog.
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Read more: John’s Thoughts & Photos—January 2017John’s thinking about seasickness (yet again), climate change, RIBs, oil analysis, good books for long winter evenings…and the beach.
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Read more: Navigation in Fog—PreparationNever was the old axiom proper preparation prevents poor performance more relevant than when cruising foggy places. Colin gives us an in-depth check list to run through before we leave port.
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Read more: Seasickness RevisitedIt’s been a while since we looked at the ultimate cruise spoiler, seasickness. Here are a couple of new-to-us remedies and an appeal for more.
