Ocean Voyaging
The dictates of weather
Dec 21, 2010 12:00 amWe were on deck of our Hardin 45 ketch Carricklee at first light, eager to get an early start on our passage from Cartagena, Colombia, to Aruba, one of the islands of the Netherlands Antilles. The passage we were about to undertake was well known as a challenging upwind passage. Although we had secured everything aboard Carricklee the night before, we had learned from past experience that getting the seemingly endless accumulation of the gray mud of Bahía de Cartagena off the anchor chain as it came aboard would inevitably slow our departure.
Cruising Club's offshore medal to Hill and Robertson
Jan 25, 2010 12:00 am
The Cruising Club of America has selected Annie Hill and Trevor Robertson to receive its prestigious 2009 Blue Water Medal in recognition of a life of cruising and voyaging that best exemplifies the objects and goals of the CCA. The award will be presented on March 5, 2010 by CCA Commodore Sheila McCurdy (Middletown, R.I.) during the club's annual Awards Dinner at the New York Yacht Club, in New York.
Isla de Guadalupe: A harsh realm off Mexico’s Pacific coast
Jan 13, 2010 12:00 amAlong the Pacific west coast of Mexico, the hurricane season was ending. It was late November and the time had come for Anna, our Tayana 37 cutter, to begin working her way southward, from Baja California Norte to Manzanillo, Mexico; a gritty, colorful industrial port located just beyond the Tropic of Cancer.
Teenage circumnavigation saga continues
Dec 22, 2009 12:00 am
Laura Dekker, the 14-year-old Dutch sailor who was barred by a Dutch court from setting out on a solo circumnavigation and who went missing from her home in the Netherlands has been found in the Caribbean and sent home. Police located the teenager on the island of St. Maarten. Dekker had left her home and her boat in the Netherlands.
Sailing Albania
Dec 14, 2009 12:00 am
Earlier this year, our insurer lifted the ban on mariners wishing to visit Albania, so it wasn't a difficult decision for my husband Con and me to sail there aboard our Nauticat 51.5, Big Sky. We've sailed Big Sky in and out of 23 countries since April 2007, when we took possession of her in Finland, and we were eager to visit Albania for the sense of adventure in seeing places off the beaten path.
Wrecked on the Brazilian Coast
Oct 21, 2009 12:00 am
Midnight on July 27, 2007, was the start of my 38th birthday. What normally was a happy time turned grim when my Westsail 32, Wanti, slammed into a remote section of the northeast Brazilian coast.
ON cover couple at Newport Boat Show
Sep 28, 2009 12:00 am
When Daniela and Jens Uwe-Mager sailed through New York harbor this past summer, they had no idea they would end up on the cover of Ocean Navigator. But contributing editor John Snyder snapped a picture of them aboard their Hallberg-Rassy 40, Arwen and he picture made the front cover of the September issue. Atlantic crossing complete
Sep 09, 2009 12:00 amCrunch! The sound was unmistakable. The keel of our heavy ketch, Carricklee, had hit the reef and ground to an abrupt stop.
Ocean Navigator saves voyager money
May 14, 2009 12:00 am
Bring a few Ocean Navigator magazines with you when you travel, they might save you some money. That's what happened recently to Geert Van Der Kolk. Dutch sailor Van Der Kolk is leading the Haiti Sailing Project, an effort to build a boat in Haiti and sail it to the U.S. with a mixed Haitian/American crew to draw attention to Haiti and its plight as one of the Caribbean's poorest countries.
Fortieth anniversary of the first solo non-stop
Apr 26, 2009 12:00 am
One of the most impressive feats of ocean voyaging ever accomplished had its 40th-year anniversary last week. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's record as the first man to sail solo, non-stop around the world was remembered on April 22. And Knox-Johnston wasn't sailing one of today's go-fast skimming dishes or multihulls.
