Ocean Voyager - Ocean Navigator

20 Apr

Safety means being prepared for anything

Ocean NavigatorHome Page Hero, Ocean Voyager, Offshore Safety

Stephen and Dawn Bell enjoy the cruising life aboard their Leopard 48 Catamaran Pilar, having cruised down the East Coast and into the Windward Islands of the Caribbean. The Bells emphasize the critical importance of always putting safety first while planning and undertaking ocean voyages. They prioritize safety not only in their manner of coastal and offshore sailing, but also in the emergency gear they select for use in a crisis. Both Stephen and Dawn have received some formal medical training, so when someone gets hurt, they can dress wounds, splint broken bones, administer appropriate medications and make contact with emergency…

02 Apr

Cruising sabbatical becomes a new lifestyle

Bill MorrisBluewater Gear, Home Page Hero, Ocean Voyager, Offshore Sailing

Corinne Gau-Tchekov and Michel Gau voyage aboard their Alliage 49 aluminum monohull, Ganesh. They left France in 2011 after Michel’s retirement and have been sailing around the world on a six-month-at-sea/six-month-on-land rhythm, leaving Ganesh in various boatyards along the way. Having crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, then cruised for six years in Southeast Asia, they are currently in Malaysia, almost ready to cross the Indian Ocean. Corinne and Michel have been married for 37 years, and they started sailing in 1987, just after the birth of their first daughter, Marina. In 1990, they took a sabbatical year on their…

20 Mar

A family braves the elements together

Bill MorrisHome Page Hero, Ocean Voyager, Offshore Sailing, Voyaging Skills

Jon and Megan Schwartz, along with their sons, Ronan, 16, and Daxton, 14, have been cruising full time aboard their Boreal 47, Zephyros, an aluminum expedition monohull, since 2017. Since picking up the boat at the factory in northern France, they have sailed 40,000 NM together. Driven by a desire to explore the world and experience its disappearing wilds, they have often pursued places less traveled. They started in northern France, the UK, Atlantic Spain and Portugal before heading into the Mediterranean for a season. The Paxtons then crossed the Atlantic Ocean from late 2018 to early 2019. They were…

30 Jun

Ocean NavigatorOcean Voyager, Offshore Sailing

Author’s note: I first started to write this story at the request of one of my Marquesan friends who hoped to make the cruising community more aware of the issues I outline here. But I want to make it clear that I do not think the problem is very widespread. In general I think voyagers are responsible and respectful of the places we visit, but it only takes one or two instances of disrespect on the part of sailors for local attitudes to change. You’ll find the stuff of dreams at Hanamoenoa. The golden sand of its beach is so…