Fatal dive boat fire attributed to operator’s oversight failures
Before dawn on Sept. 2, 2019, a crewman aboard the dive boat Conception, which was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, Calif., awoke to a…
Ocean Voyaging
A rescue from a ship captain’s perspective
On November 9, the 328-foot Finnish-flagged cargo ship Midas rescued three French sailors from the capsized 50-foot catamaran Hallucine in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal. Included among the rescued sailors was French racer Regis Guillemot. A…
Float plan: an excellent safety tool
Filing a float plan is a valuable safety tool and its usefulness is regularly borne out by real incidents. Take the case of SV Bonobo. The owner filed a float plan with a friend regarding a voyage from Cozumel to…
Snagged anchors and empty gas bottles
Every corner of the world’s oceans has their own peculiarities. The roving squalls of the equatorial Pacific, the steep winter seas of the stormy northern Atlantic, the dreaded gales of the Gulf of Tehuantepec and the magically flat waters…
Light in a pinch
Routes from Florida to the Bahamas are as short as 50 miles, but they all involve crossing the Gulf Stream and hopefully arriving during daylight hours and early enough to clear Customs. For most sailors, this means an evening or…
It’s not easy being green
How can it be that something you love to do makes you sick? The ocean is a fickle host, at times benevolent and mild, then obstreperous and cruel — often within moments of each other. One minute you’re in…
Scopolamine patches: strong medicine
The scopolamine transdermal patch is a prescription medicine and very effective in the prevention of nausea associated with seasickness and postoperative nausea. By 2017, worldwide sales of the drug surpassed $370 million and have grown since. As with most medications,…
2020 Husick Award Winner
After consideration by our panel of judges (see below) the 2020 Ocean Navigator Chuck Husick Marine Technology Award goes to Raymarine for its Axiom+ multifunction display. Raymarine describes its Axiom MFD units this way: "The performance-tuned Axiom+ is a new…
Lighthouse with LED beacon
Lighthouses have come a long way since they were burning wood pyres on a seaside cliff. Now the USCG has turned on the first LED-based rotating beacon in a U.S. lighthouse. Light-producing technology progressed from flames to candles to lanterns…
Coast Guard urges small watercraft labeling
While not all voyagers carry surfboards, paddle boards or kayaks with them, some voyagers do. And many others bring a dinghy along, even when they're in home waters. If you have any type of small watercraft and lose track of…
Rebecca Childress and the journey forward
Rebecca Childress, live aboard voyager on the Valiant 40 Brick House and frequent contributor to ON, lost her husband Patrick to COVID 19 this past summer in Cape Town. She has posted a new video to the Brick House Youtube channel…
Solo rower breaks ocean record
Power voyagers have engines, sailors have the wind and ocean rowers have … muscles. In mid-September, British solo rower Lia Ditton finished a…
Instrumentless circumnavigator passes
Marvin Creamer, a sailor who performed a seemingly miraculous circumnavigation in the mid-1980s, has crossed the bar for the last time. A former geography professor at Rowan…
A North Pacific rescue highlights value of AMVER
Crew aboard the Matson cargo ship Mahimahi learned just after lunch on July 6 that a sailboat transiting from San Francisco to Hawaii was in trouble. The…
Autonomous Mayflower launched in UK
A 50-foot trimaran was launched in the port of Plymouth in the U.K. in late September. While 50 feet doesn’t usually a ship…
Sailing Hall of Fame inducts honorees in virtual ceremony
In a ceremony that was held…
Have you lost or found something at sea?
Editor’s note: this announcement is from Boatwatch.org, a website run by Glenn and Eddie Tuttle and associated with the Seven…
Into the Denmark Strait
The crew of the Arctic expedition sloop Aurora from left, Corinne Prevot, Ilka Hadlock, Keree Smith, Mary McIntyre (author), Camilla Edwards, Florence Gross, Marie Charpentier, Not pictured: Julia Olsen. Photobomb: Voychek, one of Aurora’s deckhands.
Tuna 101: A Primer for Voyaging Sailors
I grew up spending my summers fishing the waters of Lake Huron. When my family…
Survitec launches virtual museum
The Survitec company, a manufacturer of survival and safety products, has launched a "virtual museum." The museum is a joint effort of the company along with the Museum of Godalming, located in Surrey, England. The museum showcases inventions and patents that…
Seamanship & Navigation, September 2020
Preparing a sailing rig for going offshore For the voyaging sailboat, your rig is your primary propulsion when offshore and should be given top priority when preparing to go offshore. The rig you have been using on weekends may have…
A cultural and visual spectacle
For those in search of fair winds, an umbrella-laden beverage and an increased sense of adventure, Cuba provides. U.S.-Cuba relations easing in December of 2014 provided an opportunity for voyagers to sail the island. One year later, we arrived to our charter in the southern Cuba port of Cienfuegos to begin a 600-nm voyage to Havana.
The Ocean Race postpones next start
The Ocean Race, a crewed race around the world that has held two other names and sponsors since its inception (Whitbread Round the World Race, Volvo Ocean Race), has announced that the 14th running of the race originally scheduled to start in October 2021 will be pushed back one year to October 2022.
Famed no-instrument navigator Marvin Creamer passes
Sailor circled the globe navigating with the power of keen observation
