Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2018 i Cruising World

Cruising WARRIORS When you meet Lennie and Randy Smith, you realize they are a couple on a mission. After all, without precise planning and militarylike execution, how would they have possibly gotten their Leopard 48 catamaran all the way from their home waters of southern Florida to California while still both working full-time jobs that demand their hands-on attention? Talk about a team. The day I met them in a crowded beach bar halfway down the west coast of Baja California during the annual Baja Ha-Ha exodus, they even wore matching uniforms — long-sleeved white technical shirts and caps emblazoned with their boat logo, Happy Together. How they arrived at the name was readily apparent, I should add, as soon as they began talking. These two seemed doggedly determined to…

COME VISIT, PLEASE We run a business in the Virgin Islands. Many of our customers have contacted us to ask what they can do to help in the recovery. I tell them that there are many who have been devastated by the hurricanes who need support for their basic survival needs. To help them, we recommend they give money to organizations like usvirecovery.org that will provide immediate relief for those in need of food, water and shelter. I also tell them that if they really want to support the Virgin Islands, they need to go there this season. Although the news media makes it look like everything is destroyed in the islands, many businesses have survived the hurricanes intact, and many who suffered damage are recovering quickly. For them, the…

Looking for some fun competition on the way to somewhere warm? Take a look at these two upcoming events. First up is the Conch Republic Cup, which runs from Key West, Florida, to Marina Hemingway, Cuba. Participating boats will gather in Key West on January 26, 2018, and once in Cuba, crews will enjoy a mix of lay days and buoy racing before sailing back to Florida on February 2. The race is open to all ocean-capable boats at length overall of at least 26 feet for monohulls and 24 feet for multihulls. Registration deadline is December 31, 2017. For information, visit the website (conchrepubliccup.org). In April, the Regata del Sol al Sol sets sail from St. Petersburg, Florida, and heads to Isla Mujeres, Mexico; 2018 marks the 50th anniversary…

When my husband and I are underway aboard Outrider, our Westsail 42, our fishing pole always rests in its holder on the stern rail, its long line expectantly trolling a bright feathered lure. Often, we come away empty-handed, but sometimes, we’re rewarded with wahoo, dorado, yellowtail or tuna. On a recent passage from La Paz to Puerto Escondido, Baja, Mexico, we landed a yellowfin tuna — good news. The bad news was we had nowhere to store it. Our not-too-large freezer was already close to bursting at the seams — it couldn’t handle this generous bounty in its entirety. We stuffed what we could in the freezer and enjoyed a delicious grilled tuna dinner that evening, with a bag or two of steaks making their way into the fridge for…

SAILING Has CHANGED Josh, shut off the water!” my wife, Heidi, yelled up to me from the galley. Huh? What water? I thought as I wheeled around and caught a horrific view of the problem. Our 1-year-old had hopped off his potty in the cockpit and was hosing down the entire brunch buffet, spraying a little additional pee on his mother through the companionway. I grabbed him as quickly as I could and directed the stream overboard, but the damage was done. Were we really going to make a go of the cruising life with gremlins aboard? A little over a decade ago, Heidi and I set out on a grand sailing adventure. We were newlyweds, and invincible 20-somethings, so the idea of taking a few years to sail the…

If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that you should never say never. Like the owner of the boat named My Last Boat XIV, I made the mistake of thinking that my 2005 cruise in the Bahamas aboard Mana, a Morgan 382, was going to be my last sailing voyage after cruising more or less full-time for the previous 35 years. I had decided then that it was time to visit countries inland, rather than just seeing them from anchorages in ports and harbors. Two years ago, a tragic event proved me wrong. My very good friend Klaus Freienstein had died of a heart attack while sailing aboard his son’s boat on the Baltic. Time passed and shock was progressively replaced by gentle sadness. Lilo, his wife, had put up his…

SEAMANSHIP Halfway across the Tasman Sea, during a spring 2016 passage from Opua, New Zealand, to Bundaberg, Australia, aboard my Moore 24, Gannet, I observed that the ship’s batteries were running down. Initially, I attributed this to a combination of sun position, our course and the wind direction, which resulted in four of the six deck-mounted solar panels being in shade for most of the day leaving only the two near the stern exposed to direct sunlight. Later, when I was able to test the circuit from each solar panel individually I discovered that one of the stern panels had failed, the fourth of the six to do so since leaving San Diego two years earlier. Whatever the cause, the conséquence was that I could not continue using a tiller…

EASY Riders Planes and bikes and boats. Somehow, they’re kindred vehicles. I can’t tell you how many cruisers and sailors I’ve met over the years who were also pilots or motorcyclists. It’s downright uncanny. Count me as one of them, the rider of a 2001 Kawasaki W650 that was totally inspired by (or is it ripped off from?) an earlier Triumph Bonneville. Whatever the case, I definitely love my bike. My enthusiasm, however, pales in comparison to the passion and dedication for the sport exhibited by a Harley-Davidson owner named Wanda Kenton Smith, an old friend and a veteran of the marine industry who for many years ran her own Florida- based public-relations agency. I really enjoy riding my Kawasaki. Kenton Smith is absolutely consumed by riding her Harley. This…

HERE WE ARE in CAMP GRENADA There are a number of happy reasons why much of the Caribbean cruising fleet gathers in Grenada for hurricane season. The most important is that, statistically, we’re fairly safe here compared to Antigua, St. Maarten or the Virgins, most of which, we all know, were hit hard this past fall. Another factor is that many insurance companies don’t provide coverage in the Caribbean during hurricane season while north of 12 degrees north, but you can hang with us on Grenada’s south coast, say in Mount Hartman Bay (from which I write), where you’re still covered. Speaking of Mount Hartman Bay, my wife, Carolyn, and I are only minutes away from Egmont Harbour, which is about the finest hurricane hole in 500 miles. (It is…

Miami Boat Show Take a break from winter and check out the latest in boats and gear in the balmy climes of Miami. The Miami International Boat Show takes place over Presidents Day weekend, February 15-19, 2018. For the first time, the Strictly Sail portion of the show will be located in the same location as the powerboats: Miami Marine Stadium Park and Basin on Virginia Key. More than 50 sailboats will be in the water exclusively on Pier 9, and sailing gear and accessories will be showcased inside tents F and J. The show will also feature daily educational seminars. For more information, visit miamiboatshow.com/sail. Keep Up with the Caribbean As storm-ravaged locations get back on their feet, get the latest news and information from charter companies and more…

Selling Your Writing to the Boating Magazines (and other niche mags) by Michael Robertson (2016; Force Four Publications; paperback $15; e-book $10) If you’ve ever fancied writing for your favorite sailing magazine but don’t know where to begin, this book will tell you exactly how to do it. Robertson is a world cruiser and frequently published boating-magazine writer, book author and editor. He shares tips and outlines procedures for everything from cultivating ideas to targeting an audience to tips on how to write, pitch and submit a story to editors. There are tips on how to take better photos to accompany your work, as well as details on how to submit digital manuscripts and images. The book includes an appendix of North American and foreign English-language boating magazines with brief…

There are friends, and then there are boat friends. You know the ones — sailors willing to get sweaty or covered in grime to teach you how to do a project. Those buddy boats that stay up on watch with you all night and make sure you’re OK. The ones who infer over the net just how hellish your last passage was and show up with a bottle of rum to celebrate your arrival. And in the days after Irma, my husband and I and a loose group of cruisers based out of Puerto Rico wanted to be those boat friends to our island neighbors to the east. As the skies cleared and word started spreading of the epic damage that Irma caused, we began hustling. It was five or…

WRECKAGE and RECOVERY in the BVI On September 6, 2017, I cowered under the stairwell of an apartment in Tortola with my friend Libbie and her daughters, Ariella and Sara, as the two-story reinforced-concrete building shook violently. The sounds of sheet metal twisting in the wind, of tree limbs and flying debris hitting the building, and the freighttrain- like roar of the storm itself muted the actual sounds of the entire roof of our unit being ripped off. We all huddled together under the steel-framed staircase, and I tried to calm the children as I held a mattress down with one arm to keep us covered and protected from flying objects as a literal waterfall cascaded over us. We sat there in 6 inches of water, praying silently and aloud…

VOYAGING To paraphrase an old saw, there are two kinds of sailors: those who have kissed bottom and those who haven’t yet reached first base. My personal initiation to this unfurled when I was 11 years old and the family’s C&C 37 plowed a trench into a Chesapeake Bay sandbank that had shifted sometime after our printed chart of the area had been purchased. In those days, circa 1988, sailors typically had to rely on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Notice to Mariners to update charts (and few did) that were obsolete nearly as soon as they were printed. This was particularly a problem in cruising areas such as the Chesapeake Bay’s Middle Grounds and the Florida and Georgia coastlines, places that regularly experience seafloor metamorphosis, often courtesy of…

PROJECTS My 25-year-old Hunter 42 has aluminum tanks, which was very common across the boat and RV industries from the 1950s until well into the 1990s. Fortunately the fuel tank is in great condition. This was recently confirmed after I added two inspection ports and cleaned that tank for the first time in 25 years — but that’s a separate story! I have two aluminum water tanks: an 85-gallon one amidships and a 65-gallon one forward. Both, as one should expect, had some corrosion. My forward tank had been leaking very slightly so I knew that needed replacement. However, replacing that tank would be a huge undertaking, requiring the removal (read: major deconstruction) of the entire guest bed and drawers, plus removal of the door and frame in the forward…

MONTHLY MAINTENANCE Bonding systems connect underwater metals, including through-hull fittings, struts and rudder stocks. The system has several goals, the primary one being corrosion protection for these metals via an anode, or “zinc,” to which the system is also connected. In the world of corrosion, the anode is, when measured on the galvanic scale, less noble, or more corrosion- prone, than other metals, which allows it to sacrifice itself to protect bronze and stainless-steel alloys. As long as the two maintain a very good low-resistance electrical connection, the anode can do its job. How low is low? The maximum allowable resistance between any bonded underwater metal and the system’s anode is a scant 1 ohm. If you aren’t familiar with electrical resistance, think of it as one page out of…