It’s important to understand sailing basics – avoiding collisions with anything that might damage your boat. What do you look at before you leave an anchorage or port? Once you’re underway and sailing, how soon do you start to pay attention to known obstacles, like reefs and channel markers? What about unknowns like anchored or[Read More]
Safety
Long Sailing Passage Preparation Checklist
In this Long Sailing Passage Preparation Checklist, you’ll find action items for safety and medical, communications, passage plans, provisioning, crew briefing/watch schedules/duties, and last-minute preparations. What is a long sailing passage? If you’re going in the open ocean and won’t be close to land I consider that a long passage even if it’s a few[Read More]
Avoiding Ship Collisions Video
One of the scarier things about navigating by sailboat is dealing with cargo ships and cruise liners. As you’ll see in our avoiding ship collisions video we offer a situation where things didn’t go to plan. If you have an AIS system on your plotter navigating is easier because you know the CPA, or Closest[Read More]
Avoiding Ship Collisions
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]
The Importance of Using a Sailing Safety Tether
A sailing safety tether is used in conjunction with a life jacket to effectively attach oneself to a strong part of the boat. Using a safety tether can be a lifesaver. Some arguments have been made that the tether is one of the most important bits of safety equipment – if you don’t fall off[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]
Rescue At Sea
If you had to perform a rescue at sea would you know what to do? Would your partner, guests, family, or friends sailing with you know what to do? In this video, we explain and show you a recent REAL Man Overboard that we experienced. While we were sailing a mile or so off the[Read More]
How To Make A VHF Radio Call
Most new VHF radio users get their initial experience by calling another person or a marina. After making a few calls, using the VHF radio becomes second nature – just like using the telephone. Here are six easy steps on how to make a VHF Radio call, a video and a written example in addition[Read More]
Boat Safety – How To Keep Safe On The Water
When it comes to boat safety it’s quite a broad category. You might immediately think that it’s just life jackets, a GPS positioning device, and Man Overboard equipment but that’s only a very small tip of the iceberg. As with most things boating-related, safety is yet another huge category to get your head around. Allow me[Read More]
Sending a MAYDAY checklist
One of the first things you need to know BEFORE becoming an active bluewater cruiser is to know how to send a MAYDAY. Sure, the VHF radio is equipped with a red ‘panic’ type button but that’s not necessarily going to save you. Your chances of getting help increase drastically if you follow up an[Read More]
