-
Read more: A Winter In CharlestonCharleston, South Carolina is a great place to spend the winter…so we went back for a second year.
-
Read more: Q&A: Radar Reflectors and/or AIS Transponders?Question [Edited for brevity]: We have been upgrading the safety equipment on board our boat and are thinking of installing radar reflectors to amplify and enhance the radar signal we create to alerting oncoming vessels of our position during offshore sailing in bad weather and heavy seas. The Echomax Active-XS-Dual Band reflector seems very good, […]
-
Read more: It’s Painting Time AgainAs the old saying goes, you pay for your pleasures, and that’s certainly true when it comes round to the annual re-fit. The many little jobs that were just too awkward afloat, added to the big ones like antifouling, can all back up and lead to a formidable worklist.
-
Read more: Serve Your ApprenticeshipPhyllis tells an all too common sad story and then moves on to tips to prevent it happening to you.
-
Read more: Why Go North? For The PeopleThough this is third in the series explaining why we keep going north, it’s not down the list in our hearts: the people we meet in the north are a big reason we keep going back.
-
Read more: Feathering Propeller Review
When we took delivery of our new OVNI 435 in 2008, we decided to stick with the standard 3 bladed propeller, partly for reasons of cost (we were running out of cash!). But on all of my previous boats I’d had either a folding or feathering prop, and fully intended to fit one to Pèlerin […]
-
Read more: A Propane Tank GotchaThis is a small FYI post about a big pain in the butt! The gotcha started innocently enough with me blithely loading our propane tanks into the back of the car and driving to our local Canadian Tire to get them filled—as I had done with no problems in the past—prior to our heading south […]
-
Read more: Priorities In PreparationYou will never get everything done on your boat. This we guarantee. So one of the most important skills you can have as a boat maintenance technician is prioritization. In this chapter John tells a story of when he got his priorities wrong, and what he learned from that.
-
Read more: The Perfect SeaberthOne of the most important factors in making safe seamanlike passages is getting as much rest as possible. And one of the most important factors in getting enough rest is having a proper seaberth.
-
Read more: A Big Adventurer In A Small BoatOn our way to Svalbard (Spitsbergen) in Morgan’s Cloud in 2002, we stopped at Teltvika, a cove on the west side of Bjørnøya (Bear Island), a virtually uninhabited island which lies at the halfway mark on the 550 nautical mile passage from Norway. During our second evening at Teltvika, the fog came in pea soup […]
-
Read more: That’s One Way To Do It…
For many impecunious youngsters around the world a ‘project’ is the only chance of getting out on the ocean road, and good luck and full respect to them.
-
Read more: Air-Sea Safety and Survival Inc.We are really careful about getting our liferaft serviced each year. So back in the fall we contacted Raymond Harvey at Air-Sea Safety and Survival Inc, here in Charleston, South Carolina, where we are spending the winter.
-
Read more: Why Go North? For The SceneryThis one is almost too much of a cliché to mention but, since we are talking about why we go north, the scenery is definitely one of the big draws.
-
Read more: Making Life Easier—Roller Reefing/Furling
Colin shares the details on the Harken roller reefing system they installed on their OVNI 435.
-
Read more: Clear The Decks For ActionThere are few things more unseamanlike than a lot of clutter on deck. But, on the other hand, we all like our toys. Here are some thoughts (with photographs) on the things you really don’t want to festoon your boat with.
-
Read more: Making Life Easier—Storm JibColin and Louise carry a dedicated hanked on storm jib ready to go when necessary. Colin tells us why and how.
-
Read more: John’s Thoughts & Photos, February 2011
From time to time our readers point us toward, or we stumble upon, something published on the internet that we learn from and that makes us better offshore sailors.
-
Read more: 11 Steps To Better Lead Acid Battery LifeIn the last chapter, we quantified how short battery life will be on a cruising boat with a standard electrical system, now let’s move on to fixing that.
-
Read more: Piracy—Trouble In Paradise
For most cruising yachtsmen there are few more beautiful, peaceful or congenial places to down a cold Tusker beer, than on the Kenyan shore of the Indian Ocean. Such places form the backbone of the dream for so many, and it’s not hard to see why. But outside in open waters things are less idyllic, […]
-
Read more: How To Use An Anchor Trip LineJohn writes about how we rig an anchor trip line on Morgan’s Cloud.
-
Read more: The Beauty Of SimplicityToday our boats are more complex than ever before. And yes, there are benefits that go along with some of this complexity. But, as a general rule, simple is almost always more seamanlike than complicated.
-
Read more: Sailing The West Coast Of Scotland, Part 2Sailing ‘off-grid’ is all about getting away from the crowds, and the west of Scotland can certainly offer that – during my first fortnight in charge of a charter boat in the Hebrides back in the spring of 1992 we saw one other yacht in two weeks. And in those days there was a kind […]
-
Read more: Warm Hands, PleaseA while ago I wrote about how we keep our feet warm when sailing in colder climes. In this post I will address the issue of keeping our hands warm, which aren’t, unfortunately, as easy to please.
-
Read more: A Hidden Gem, Cape Lookout HarborBeing too tall for the Intracoastal Waterway has its advantages, as stumbling on this stunning anchorage proves.
-
Chart Plotters And Autopilots, Never The Twain Should Meet
25 CommentsReading Time: 3 minutesMembers
Read more: Chart Plotters And Autopilots, Never The Twain Should MeetThe dangers of interfacing a boat’s autopilot and navigation plotter.
