It was the middle of the winter when my wife, Laura, and I flew to St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, to join our old friend Tom Garvey aboard his 37-foot Island Spirit Catamaran, Sanctuary. Californian Mark Paulson, a lifetime beach cat sailor and avid J/120 racer, and Glenn Ashmore, a software developer and delivery boat skipper, also joined us.We met on the dock in St.
Any Michigan native will tell you that the pristine waters of the Northern Great Lakes hold some of the greatest sailing opportunities known to man. So when Captain David Rowe sent us pictures of his pups Katie and Libby, relaxing on board their Cal 39 “Wild Honey” in the waters around Mackinac Island, a collective sigh of jealousy erupted throughout the entire SAIL office. And that was BEFORE we
SEAMANSHIP: Hang tightPriority number one when Im out cruising is to stay on board my boat. Using a safety harness after dark, or when conditions are strong, is important, but even the best harness only guarantees you stay attached to the boat. Its no fun being dragged alongside. Also, accidents can happen in the most benign conditions. A sailor from my marina drowned
MAINTENANCE: Keeping Fuel Sludge-ProofFour years ago our diesel engine died because of a blocked fuel line. Weve known many other cruisers who have suffered the same problem. Whenever a boat is going to windward under power, as we were, the fuel in the tanks gets stirred up. If the tank contains dirty fuel or microbial growth, as ours did, there will often be trouble. To
They say that man’s best friend is the canine, and so it makes sense that often our favorite partner on the rail is of the non-homo sapiens variety. Does your dog or cat love the water enough to put on a PFD and cruise with you? If so, send us your pictures, along with the appropriate caption, for us to post on the website.Send photos to
I know sailors who can sleep through 40-knot winds even though the halyards are throbbing like a string quartet. But the truth is if something on the boat is making noise, chances are that its either hitting or rubbing something else and that means lots of chafe and wear. A quiet boat is a chafe-free and therefore a safer boat. At night that can often mean the difference between a good nights
Announcing the winners of SAIL’s Holiday Wish ListThe holidays have come and gone, but SAIL still has one more gift to give: our stocking full of sailing goodies. From November 1, 2009 to January 1, 2010, we accepted entries from hundreds of SAIL readers who responded to our question, “What ten items do you most wish to add to your sailboat this upcoming season?” From masts to mainsails,
If you want to please a crowd, you have to know the audience. If you want to grow the sport of sailing, you have to know who’s getting in the boats. This was the thinking behind a recent survey conducted by the American Sailing Association (ASA). “We wanted to learn more about our students,” executive director Charlie Nobles said. “We hope people will take what we found, apply it to their corner
Sailors are fond of rules, although it is also true that some rules are simply mnemonic memory devices. Red right returning is a good example, at least in North America. Others might provide advice: Red sky at night, sailors delight comes to mind. But some phrases are rules that are inviolate: Always wear a harness at night is one.Ive developed my own set of rules that,
All chartplotters have an anchor alarm that can be set to sound when the boat moves outside a specific radius around a GPS position. The concept is great, but in the real world it is often not all that helpful. The reason is that the anchor alarms radius is normally set on the boats position rather than the position of the anchor. If the alarm is enabled when the hook touches bottom it should
We’d been told to expect meteor showers on our first night out of Bermuda, so Sue and I were eyes-alert to the black sky when
It was an early alarm. My wife likes it loud, and loud it was. The clanging clanged my nerves. I was suddenly wide awake and,
Things may still be frightful up north, but down in the Caribbean the weather is just fine, and the recently launched Jeanneau Sun Loft 47
One of the formative influences on modern cruising, Jimmy Cornell has been uncharacteristically quiet since his attempt on the Northwest Passage a few years ago.
It was a dark and stormy night. Actually it was a cold and windy mid-February afternoon. We were into our fifth or sixth day of
Francis Joyon and crew aboard the maxi-tri IDEC Sport are fast approaching the halfway point in their attempt to break the “tea route” record from
Everyone dreads the day that something as major and costly as a boat’s rigging must be replaced. For my 1984 Tayana 42, Eclipse, still sporting
I’m not going to lie. This all started with wine. I wanted (needed?) to find more space on the boat where we could stow the
This past weekend saw the U.S. Sailing Team take gold in three of seven events at the 2020 Hempel World Cup Series Miami, the team’s
The magenta line was first added to charts in 1913. It was created to aid commercial navigation up and down the East Coast and around
