Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2016 i Cruising Helmsman

The island of Corfu is blessed with a mild climate and an historically strategic location a few miles off the coast of mainland Greece. To the north east is Albania, Montenegro and Croatia and 80 miles to the west across the Adriatic Sea is Italy. Warm and fertile and well located, Corfu has long been a waypoint for seafarers and other travellers, traders, invaders and would-be governors. Traces of human habitation 30,000 years old have been found. Romans, Venetians, Turks and English, among others, have aspired to own it. Today, the international tourist trade is big and booming. Tourists stream in by air and cruise ship. Many yacht charter companies are based in Corfu, for those who like to fly in, pick up a boat and have a quick look…

We all want better photographs of our boat and the beautiful places that we visit, but we are normally restricted to sea level unless we can find a convenient hill to climb. Recently, small camera drones have become affordable. They take beautiful pictures, allowing us to compose our shots in a three dimensional space. Drone photography is great fun, challenging and very satisfying when you get it right. This article shares my experiences with flying a drone at sea. Camara drones are an interesting combination of flying skills, technology and photography. The control systems are very complex, but improving rapidly every year to make them easier to fly. You do not fly the drone, it flies itself and you simply tell it where to go. But this does add some…

Easy heard, easy seen The IC-M25Euro VHF marine transceiver is Icom’s slim, lightweight radio featuring its Float’nFlash function. This highlight feature allows the unit to float above water and is easy to locate with its flashing red LED light. Made of waterproof construction to hold one metre depth of water for 30 minutes, now sailors do not need to be careful about keeping their radio in a dry environment. The IC-M25Euro also has a 550mW audio output to ensure audio output and received voice can be heard loud and clear. Additional features include: a large LCD screen to ensure clear user interface; and eleven hours battery life. Its USB charger makes recharging simple. A standard USB connector such as a smartphone charger or a cigarette lighting station will provide users…

Cruiser of the year nominee: Cheryl and Peter Ainsworth This month’s featured nominee has just won the Fremantle Sailing Club Cruiser of the Year for 2016. Here is their edited story. After our separate, extensive, experience yacht racing both inshore and offshore for well over a decade, plus independent life-long sailing experiences since we were young, Peter and I set forth from FSC on April 18, 2003 to achieve a long held cruising dream. Sailing back into FSC at the end of January, 2015, ended our journey which encompassed some 28 countries and 45,000 miles. Our adventures took us around South East Asia and the Indian Ocean for five years on our first Stolen Kiss. Upon returning to Darwin we decided that the only way to sail across the Pacific…

I have been up the Facine Channel to Carnarvon a few times but never for long. It has been nothing more than a great place to get supplies on the way north and then on the way south. But 2015 was different. Several circumstances resulted in me spending quite a bit of time there. It was not planned. In fact, me being seen on the Facine scene was unforseen. Change of plans I had no intention of going north of the Murchison River in 2015. This I call the Murchison Malaise where I figure if I do not go up the Zuytdorp Cliffs I don’t have to get back down them. But a mate came to my rescue and would go up the cliffs with me. Of course there was…

Five years ago I made a very rash decision. Actually that is not the whole truth. I have been making rash decisions for most of my life; some work out well, some not so well. But it is never worth wasting time on regrets. The particular rash decision of five years ago I am referring to was when I decided I had to own a keelboat. I had grown up sailing and had always intended to own a keelboat. I’d got as far as owning a Laser dinghy for a few years. My intention had always been to adopt a cruising lifestyle in retirement. After three seasons crewing on racing yachts and borrowing them to helm in the women’s regattas, I decided my boat ownership plans had to be brought…

Sandy is the fisherperson on our boat. She has always loved fishing and the pile of fishing gear that was on board when we bought the boat is probably her secret reason for wanting this particular vessel. Our steady donations in lures, hooks and swivels to the fish community since then could have kept us in fish n’ chips, three times a week for the rest of our lives and we intend living a long time! But to be fair, her strike rate has gone up a lot since starting the passage across the Pacific. We can be rocking and rolling with an awful following sea and she will be sitting there, grumpy as hell, exhausted from the strain of hanging on all the time and too little sleep, when…

Having reached Turkey from Asia in June we spent a wonderful, fascinating European summer cruising down the Bosphorus from Istanbul and then south to Fethiye. We then sailed onto Greece via Rhodes and then through the Greek islands towards the Corinth Canal.  The summer weather was stable with mostly light winds but we knew that we needed to head for a safe haven to sit out the winter. Choices Our choice was based on a few criteria:   firstly positioning ourselves conveniently for next season’s destinations; secondly, security, we wanted to be able to leave Maggie Drum safely in order to do some inland travelling; thirdly, mild temperatures, as we would be living aboard for some of the winter; fourth, price of course, like any long-term cruisers we were on a…

One of the most common questions asked about living onboard is how much does it cost? But that is such an open-ended question. There is so much variation that it is impossible to give a definitive answer. Everyone has their own financial arrangements, everyone has a different boat and everyone wants to cruise in a slightly different way. This article will give you an idea of budgeting, costs for various types of cruising and the costs and budget over the last three years cruising around the Mediterranean onboard Amble, our 2010 Beneteau Oceanis 43. No matter what you are planning to do you must set a budget. Do this before you sail so you have an idea of what you will be spending. There will be differences between the budget…

These days you will often find published in boat brochures and boat tests, a diagram showing the performance of a particular boat. The diagram is called a polar plot and a typical one is shown in figure 1. Understanding how to use a polar plot can help make your voyages quicker and safer. If you already know what a polar plot is, skip to the next section. The polar plot is a very concise way of showing what your boat speed should or could be over a range of true wind speeds and true wind angles. In order to understand it, we need to get to grips with the axes used in the plot. The true wind direction in the polar plot is blowing from the top of the page…

Voyages are born, not made. They are born of the spirit of the voyagers themselves. Countless differing influences coalesce to bring them to reality. It may be that we flatter ourselves when we have completed a voyage according to plan; but I doubt that it is ever as simple as that. Voyages are dictated by the demands of our natures and the intrigues of our subconscious, not merely by our conscious awareness. They lead us not only to experiences in time and space, but also to revelations of personal discovery. To be so rewarding, a voyage need not have been fraught with danger, fear or disaster. On the contrary, the most pacific voyages can be as rewarding as the most testing. Our natures dictate the level of reward from our…