Did you know that there are several steps you can take to ensure that you’re not bulldozed over by a ship while out sailing? Avoiding ship collisions is an important part of being a confident sailing cruiser. Quite a few new sailors get nervous when tankers or cruise ships are in the area. Tankers are[Read More]
How To's
How To Tie Onto A Cleat
One of the first things you’ll learn when becoming a sailor is how to tie onto a cleat. Like most things in sailing there are options. There are two main recognized knots used for fastening a line to a cleat. The first is the cleat hitch and the second is called the OXO method. American’s[Read More]
How To Make Your Boat Shine
Here’s how to make your boat shine – we demonstrate the best way to make your metalwork sparkle, remove rust from your Gelcoat, and make your engine nice enough to eat off of! How To Make Your Boat Shine Video Links to Products Mentioned in the Video Autosol Marine Products (From Autosol) Star Brite Rust[Read More]
How To Fix A Leaky Mast
Boats leak from a variety of places, the mast being one of them. In this video, Simon will demonstrate how to fix a leaky mast using amalgamating, or self-bonding, tape. You can purchase this kind of tape on Amazon, at a boat chandlery, or any hardware store. The great thing about self-bonding tape is that[Read More]
Overnight Sailing Trip
One of the initial worries that new sailing cruisers have is tackling their first overnight sailing trip. Our recommendation is to either sign up for a few night sailing experiences or, if you already have a boat, hire a professional skipper that can join you on a long voyage or two. Sailing at night can[Read More]
What Tools To Have On My Boat?
We often get asked by aspiring sailing cruisers, ‘What tools to have on my boat?’ One of our guests wanted to bring his land-based man cave with him. He spent his life building up his tool collection and felt very attached to it – especially his lathe. This is totally understandable but ultimately not practical.[Read More]
Marine And Boat Refrigeration Temperature
The secret to having a successful sailing cruising lifestyle is maintaining a routine of checks. Things break on a boat all the time when you first start out. Over time, however, you start to discover ways and means to prevent a majority of breakages – even checks concerning marine and boat refrigeration temperature come into[Read More]
Installing A New Marine Diesel Engine
What’s it like installing a new marine Diesel engine? Is it a small job or a big one? Well…any job on a boat seems to take far longer than intended. But what’s involved in an engine swap out? When my husband Simon said he wanted to replace our Westerbeke 7.5 kW with a Northern Lights[Read More]
The Importance of Using a Safety Harness Lanyard – 7 Tips for Sailors
A safety harness lanyard is a crucial piece of safety equipment for anyone venturing out on a boat. Think of it as your lifeline, a tether that connects your safety harness to a secure point on the boat. This simple yet essential device can prevent you from falling overboard in case of a slip or stumble. Should you[Read More]
The Best Life Jacket for Sailing Cruisers
The Best Life Jacket for Sailing Cruisers? Let me tell you a story first. Never did I expect to be standing under the boom in a Force 10 storm trying to tie down our mainsail. The seas were an ominous muddy gray with enormous white angry cresting waves. The waves were crashing on top of[Read More]
