Clik here to view.
Ranting about safety at sea
I feel like I'm decidedly in the minority when it comes to the modern ocean sailing game. My boat is from 1966, my GPS a handheld unit from 1993, we've got paper charts onboard and no electrics...
View ArticleClik here to view.
EYEBALL NAVIGATION: The Heart of the Art
QUIZ ANY CURMUDGEON these days on the subject of proper wayfinding and you'll soon find yourself reefed down in a gale of conventional wisdom about the importance of paper charts, compass bearings,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Equinox, celestial mechanics & pesky “True Wind”
Written by Ben Ellison on Mar 20, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub I'm not a pagan but my first wedding was on the Summer Solstice in 1976 and the second was on the Vernal Equinox in 1993....
View ArticleFriday (Not So) Funny: A Crash-Tack Would Have Been Wise
Here's the full readout on what happened and the consequences: At a hearing 30/05/2011 at Southampton Magistrates the Officer of the Watch of a fishing vessel pleaded guilty to one safety charge...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Puerto Escondido
Our first couple of nights after leaving La Paz we had strong coromuel winds, but after getting just another twenty miles or so north the nights have been silent. No swell—the beauty of the east coast...
View ArticleClik here to view.
ROLL-UP INFLATABLE DINGHIES: Better Than RIBs
ATTENTION EARTH PEOPLE! As I write this I am approaching Bermuda, blasting along but 70 miles out on what seems a perpetual close reach, due for a landing sometime in the wee hours tomorrow, of which...
View ArticleClik here to view.
SWAN 48 DELIVERY: Wrong Way To The W’Indies
Editor’s Note: Those studying my recent account of Lunacy‘s passage from Puerto Rico to Bermuda may have noticed that we did NOT find that abandoned Swan 48, Wolfhound, ex-Bella Luna , that I blogged...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to go offshore sailing
Schooner Arcturus in Auckland, New Zealand (2006) Incredibly, it seems, I’m getting more and more emails from people looking to me for advice on how to get out and go sailing. I was in the exact same...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to Splice an Oversized Rode into an Undersized Chain
Our anchor chain has been looking iffy for a while now. Not “terrible”, not “dangerous”, but not exactly the way you would want a piece of equipment that is holding your vessel in place to look. So,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
ANCHORING TIP: Store Rope Rode On Deck
I didn’t come up with this idea myself. I learned it crewing for a guy down in Florida who always stored not one, but two rope anchor rodes on his foredeck while cruising. Even on offshore passages he...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Brush with Beauforts
I’ve just finished A Voyage for Madmen, Peter Nichol’s excellent chronicle of the original Golden Globe race. In it he recounts an exchange between a young Robin Knox-Johnston and the attending...
View ArticleClik here to view.
SALVAGE LAW: Do You Get to Keep an Abandoned Boat?
I’ve been posting a bit lately about abandoned boats, and my SAILfeed colleague Clark Beek has rightly pointed out that it is high time I bloviated on the subject of salvage rights. Many people...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Matt Rutherford encounters abandoned Swan 48 during Ocean Research Project...
Holy moly. All this chatter from Charlie Doane about abandoned sailboats, and look what Matt Rutherford has turned up in mid-Atlantic. He’s apparently the second person who’s found – and boarded –...
View ArticleClik here to view.
COCKPIT CONTROL LINES: Fight the Spaghetti Madness
Just as all roads once led to Rome, many cruising sailors now believe that all working lines should lead to the cockpit. The result, unfortunately, is often a pile of multi-colored spaghetti that is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Summer bummer, please don’t blame charts or electronics
Written by Ben Ellison on Aug 10, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub While my friend Leonard Lookner was first to come upon this distressing scene Wednesday afternoon, he too was sailing and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Angering the sailing gods
Well, thanks for the comments on that last post, Tom Trump, but I think you jinxed us! Or, more accurately, I think I jinxed myself. I’m warm now, drinking a hot cup of coffee (decaf!) in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Careening
I just read Sailing Alone Around the World, by Captain Joshua Slocum, for about the tenth time. On this reading I noted that Captain Slocum careened several times on his voyage, usually to paint the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Wild Is Your Wildlife? Part I: Fins in the Water
Q: I’d like to go cruising, but I’m not so keen on sharks. Do you see many? Are they a problem? A: Ah, sharks. On my list of Things People Worry About On Our Behalf, they sit second only to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hauling Out and Back in Time
I hate to admit it, but after sailing two-thousand odd miles to get to Maine this summer I hardly did any sailing when I got there. Almost from the first day I got caught up in land life and before I...
View ArticleCOLLISION AVOIDANCE: How To Get Run Down By A Ship
You may have seen this video a couple of years ago back when the collision, during Cowes race week, took place. They’re having a trial about it now, as the skipper of the yacht, a Corby 33 named...
View Article