A circumnavigator’s favorite ocean films
While essentially the entire world was on lockdown and almost all…
Short Tacks
Reports of aggressive killer whales
Orcas have battered sailboats off Spain and Portugal and the behavior of these large marine mammals has baffled experts. Sailors along Spain and Portugal’s Atlantic coastlines…
During a pandemic, flexibility is key
The wheelhouse was scattered with guidebooks extolling the virtues and sites to behold in and around the Baltic — fjords in Sweden and Norway, Danish in Denmark, history-laden Poland, and enough lager to sink a barge in Germany. The chartplotters…
Boat show lemonade
It’s been a tough year for the businesses of the world. There was no precedent for the COVID-19 pandemic and no instruction manual on what to do.…
The rebuilding of Golden Rule, the first protest boat
It’s a misty day in the photo and the sand is brownish gray, setting off the white paint of the derelict hull as if the boat were lit by a ray of sunshine.
Rule of thumb
Commercial fishing operations abound with heavily-loaded lines.
The Nautical Almanac online
I recall periodically gaining computer access to the Nautical Almanac’s daily pages by simply typing “Nautical Almanac online” into Google’s search engine.
The art of letting go
Our passages up the Pacific coast of Mexico have been hard going as they were mostly into wind and against current.
Stewardship and dealing with trash
For six years, I spent a lot of time floating around on the surface of the ocean — something like 50,000 nautical miles worth.
Twenty-five years of wind vane steering
Many sailors who make short-handed, offshore passages — we have a two-person crew — love the notion of electric-energy-free wind vane self-steering.
Discovering a voyaging classic
To the editor: In the summer of 2009 my son Christopher and I were spending a lazy afternoon wandering around our local boatyard in Port Jefferson, N.Y. We were in the “bone yard” section, investigating the old abandoned boats, when…
Nightly green fireworks
To the editor: The Americans we’ve met call it bioluminescence. When we crossed the Atlantic we talked about it as nightly green fireworks. Without doubt, one of the biggest changes we’ve felt since going from one ocean to the next…
The one that got away
To the editor: Telling this story I feel like a fisherman talking about a big fish that got off his hook. It was Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013. We were on a non-stop trip from Huntington, N.Y., to St. Maarten. Joining…
First passage as captain
To the editor: In May I was in New Orleans frantically finishing a two-year refit of my 1975 Cape Dory 28. Then, just a few months later, I had put 2,000 miles under the keel on a passage north to…
Satellite phone a necessity offshore?
To the editor: As a long time subscriber I read with great interest the communications articles in the November/December 2013 issue. It had excellent coverage of the many devices and services available to sailors. I would like to add one comment, however. As…
A sailboat electric-energy system
To the editor: Many cruising sailboats have worked out an electric-energy system that works for them; too many others are continually trying to find the right mix. Kathy and I have done the same on our vintage Tartan 34.5 CB…
The outside route
It was about mid-day when I asked the dockmaster in Jersey City what she had been hearing about weather for the next few days.
The avian pleasures of voyaging
Voyaging under sail has many pleasures, but a major reward is experiencing the beauty of the natural world.
Teaching sun, stars and sextant in the age of GPS
A little more than a century ago, Joseph Conrad sat for his mate and master’s tickets in the British merchant service.
Boatyard blues
Haul outs are de rigueur for big displacement boaters; the old fun machine must be pulled out regularly for a scrape and a fresh coat of ablative bottom paint.
Mainsail decisions
A sailmaker gave us some advice one time when asked how we should care for our mainsail: “Sail hard. Put it away wet. And come see me in a year.”
Voyager weighs in on tourist development for Yap
To the editor: The Pacific basin is an iconic tourist destination, and for good reason. Any voyager who has spent time there can attest to its beauty and diversity: the Tuamotus’ palm-fringed atolls, Fiji’s lush rainforests, and New Zealand’s vertiginous…
Young ocean racer hooked on sailing
Although my dad, Rick Higgins, had sailed in the previous two Marion Bermuda Races, participating in the race myself was the last thing I pictured doing. Then, I had a sudden change of heart.
More on the free surface effect
To the editor: I always enjoy reading articles by Ralph Naranjo, including his recent piece on bilge pumps (“Pumps and priorities,” Issue No. 209, Ocean Voyager 2013). I would like to offer some further explanation, however, on his remarks about…
