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Read more: Sailing The West Coast Of Scotland, Part 1A hardy perennial in sailing magazines has always been some well-known individual describing their ‘favourite secret anchorage’. I’ve never fully understood the rationale for taking part in such an exercise. After all, if it’s no longer a secret, won’t that make it as busy as any other place as a result? As someone once wisely […]
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Read more: New Versus OldWhen we arrived in Lagos, Portugal, I recognised a very smart looking cutter berthed near us as belonging to people I knew, so when I could see there was someone aboard I wandered over to say hello. After a brief chat, I was told that this obviously ocean-ready yacht was now up for sale due […]
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Read more: Chafe-Pro ReviewChafe-Pro provides an off-the-shelf solution for protecting vulnerable lines from chafe.
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Read more: Anatomy Of An AccidentIt was 4:00 am on a black early morning anchored at Cape Lookout Harbour when Phyllis and I were awoken by a crash from up forward followed by a sickening scraping sound. A quick look out the companionway showed the outline of another sailboat reversing away from our bow. The outline looked a lot like […]
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Read more: Cruising With A PurposeThe liveaboard life appeals on many levels, but in common with many cruising couples that we have encountered, we have found that it can feel a little purposeless at times. This is partly due to us still shaking off many years of frenetic career work, but we’ve found we’re far from alone in this regard. […]
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Read more: Reefing Made EasyHow to reef a sailboat easily and quickly without getting frightened or wet.
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Read more: Closed For The SeasonDue to John’s and my penchant for sailing in the high latitudes, “Closed For The Season” signs have become somewhat of a theme for our cruises. In early spring we are on our way north and nothing is open yet, and by the time we turn south in the fall, it’s all over.
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Read more: Avon Dinghy, Take TwoWe loved our old Avon dinghy, so much so that we kept it in active service for 20 years, even though it sprang a slow air leak about year 17. (Unless you’ve ever tried jumping 4 feet into the air—it’s about that distance from the dinghy tube to Morgan’s Cloud’s side-deck—off a squishy inner tube, […]
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Read more: Racing To CruiseRacing sailboats is a great way to gain experience that will be invaluable when we go offshore cruising. John shares a passage across the Gulf of Maine.
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Read more: Achieving The ImpossibleColin discusses some of the modifications they made to their OVNI 435 to make her both a comfortable home and a voyaging machine.
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Read more: Cutting The Ties That BindFor various reasons we spent most of the summer at our cabin in Nova Scotia, working way too much and sailing way too little. While preparing to get back out cruising, we were once again reminded of the difficulties and sheer work of leaving a land base: Get car ready for storage, store same, move […]
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Read more: Perkins M92B, Initial Report CardInstalling the new engine was a huge and expensive job, so how did it work out?
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Read more: Rudder Options, Staying In Control
Whenever we lift our OVNI out at a boatyard, she soon attracts a lot of attention. Partly that’s due to the sight of a sizeable boat (seemingly) without a keel, sitting on her bottom, but especially the rudder in its kicked up position, pointing out behind her.
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Read more: Nexus Instruments, Great Gear And Great CultureReasonably Priced Seven years ago, when KVH stopped supporting our previous sailing instrument system, we looked at Brooks and Gatehouse but balked at the cost and instead settled on a new NX2 system from Nexus at less than half the price.
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Read more: Equalizing Batteries, The RealityFully charging your batteries after each discharge on a live-aboard cruising sailboat is simply not practical. Instead, most of us will cycle our batteries between 50 and 80% of their capacity. The bad news is that this will ruin your lead-acid batteries (regardless of type) in a distressingly short time due to sulphation. However, there is a solution: equalization. In this chapter we cover what it is and how to do it.
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Read more: Climate Change In ActionJohn and I have a longstanding interest in collecting books on historical and present-day exploration of the high latitudes, or “death and destruction on the ice” as we call it. But it looks like climate change could put an end to this genre more quickly than we thought: This summer, for the first time in […]
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Read more: Storm Preparation, All Chain On Deck
What with spending a lot of time in the high latitudes and keeping boats on moorings year round in Bermuda, John has a lot of experience dealing with heavy weather while anchored or on a mooring. In this chapter he gives some tips for preparing your boat to safely ride out a storm.
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Read more: Lunenburg, Nova Scotia—In Our Own BackyardLunenburg charms with its historic waterfront, dory races, and tasty restaurants. Oh, and it’s a UNESCO world heritage site to boot!
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Read more: Anchor Swivels, Just Say NoWe have never seen the point of anchor swivels. In our opinion all they do is add a potential point of failure to the anchoring system and provide no benefits in return. But they are, in fact, even more dangerous than we thought. In this chapter we explain why and even tell you how to ameliorate the danger if you really must have a swivel.
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Read more: Q&A: Hybrid Rope And Chain Anchor RodesMany anchoring experts advocate hybrid anchor rodes made up of a long length of chain attached to an even longer piece of rope. But is this really a good idea? We examine the practical real world issues in this chapter.
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Read more: Earl Comes To LunchHurricanes, you just can’t trust em. When we went to bed Earl was supposed to make landfall on the west side of the province, some 80 miles away. But this morning he has wobbled east and is heading straight for us here on the southwestern shore of Nova Scotia.
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Read more: AC Chargers For Lead Acid BatteriesMost marine battery chargers are, in fact, battery killers. Yes, that includes most of the fancy three stage units we all pay so much money for. Here’s why and what to do about it.
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Read more: Hurricane Forecasts, Sausage Or SizzleIt is now pretty likely that Hurricane Earl will give us high winds here on the south-western shore of Nova Scotia. However, a deviation of just 50 miles either side of the forecast track will likely make the difference between us experiencing gale force versus hurricane force winds. And that in turn will determine whether […]
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Read more: Hurricane ResourcesI have lived most of my life in the direct line of fire of Atlantic hurricanes, first in Bermuda, and now on the southern shore of Nova Scotia. But no matter how familiar I am with the damned things, or perhaps because of that familiarity, I always have a slight feeling of constant tension at […]
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Read more: Inverters And ChargersCombined inverters and chargers have become pretty much standard on cruising sailboats but, in fact, that’s a really bad idea. In this chapter we will share why and what to do about it.
