The iPad was one of he best purchases we made before leaving the US.
We bought it at the last minute after realizing that buying new chart cards for our rather outdated chart-plotter could become quite expensive in the long run.
The iPad 3/4G comes with an “assisted GPS” (the basic WiFi version does not have a GPS receiver) and while in the Apple store we talked to several of the geniuses about what exactly assisted GPS is. They all agreed that I had to be within reach of cell towers for it to work. I didn’t agree then and I can now say that the GPS works just fine well over 100 miles from shore and gets a fix in mere seconds.
Our boat’s chart plotter came with one chart card that covers Cape Flattery to Mazatlan. While Cape Flattery is amazingly beautiful I doubt we will ever take this boat that far north (we sailed past boats on Puget Sound and love the Pacific North West – in summer). However, in one month of cruising we had already gone past the southern border of the chart card. Not to mention that the card is from 2004 and I just cannot justify buying new cards every year or two to get important chart updates. …Read more
I’m sure Mom never dreamed her words would lead to this . . .
Everything I Needed to Know to Go Cruising …
… I learned from my mom.
Esther Kaye, my mom
No, she wasn’t a cruiser, a sailor, a diesel mechanic or an electrician. Those skills would have been helpful, but not as helpful as what she did teach me.
You see, what she gave me was a way of looking at things. Confidence that we could do something so totally different from anything we’d done before.
Mom died 33 years ago, when I was just 19. But her words are with me every day. …Read more
Breakfast with Westland Petrels,
becalmed, Pacific
From watching dolphins leaping at the bow, seeking companionship from a banking shearwater during lonely ocean watchers or flushing hundreds of tiny sparkling plankton down the loo(!), sailors are overwhelmingly in tune with the natural world.
Like our fellow amphibians, we have adapted to life on land and in the water, just with a few more contraptions to keep us afloat! Sails power us, wind turbines swish, solar panels bristle and wake turbines spin, providing green energy for our lights, laptops, fridges or if you’ve a wooden boat like us, bilge pumps!
It is this usage of alternative energy and awareness of its consumption, down to the last amp, that holds us apart from many of our land-dwelling counterparts. Just as a gecko effortlessly merges with its surrounding, so the sailor can be seen collecting rain water, conserving water, sourcing locally and eating seasonally; it is as natural to her as living in a box the size of most people’s garden shed. …Read more
We recently purchased a Com-Pac 23 (an upgrade from a Com-Pac 19). We take many extended stays on the water throughout the summer, hoping to someday take off for the big blue waters.
My question, as we start to stock our boat, is:
What organizing tips and tricks do your contributors have for us rookies?
I always thought it was Ben Franklin who coined the phrase, “A place for everything and everything in its place.” …Read more
Book Review – Mariner’s Guide to Nautical Information, by Priscilla Travis. Cornell Maritime Press
It is fair to wonder if there is any lingo more alien to a newcomer than the jargon of sailors? “Boat speak” appears to be English (most of the time), but so many terms consolidate reams of meaning and process. How’s a newcomer to even get started?
It appears at first glance to be simply a glossary of nautical terms and expressions. It takes a second look to realize that many entries go well beyond simple definitions to include expanded explanations, common applications, and relevant advice accompanied by lots of photographs, diagrams and illustrations. …Read more
It turned out I was not alone in my passion for observing and enjoying birds while cruising.
Thanks to the phenomenal network of Women and Cruising, I connected to several other dedicated “birders-aboard,” including
Beth Leonard on s/v Hawk,
Brenda Free on s/v Willow,
Devi Sharp on s/v Arctic Tern,
Jeanne Socrates on s/v Nereida,
Katharine Lowrie on s/v Lista Light,
Wendy Clarke on s/v Osprey,
Yvonne Katchor on s/v Australia 31,
and Dorothy Wadlow on s/v Joyant.
Together we organized the first worldwide “SeaBC” SeaBird Count, where cruisers tally and submit their ocean and coastal bird sightings to eBird‘s online database. These sightings become a resource for scientists and provide much-needed data on seabird abundance and distribution.
Participation spanned over 100 degrees of latitude — from the Gulf of Maine at North 48º to South 58º on Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. But most counts were from more temperate latitudes, such as the islands off Africa, Chile’s Golfo de Penas, and the Caribbean. …Read more
Pam and I are part of an impressive line-up of instructors, including Nigel Calder, Lee Chesneau, George Day, Herb McCormick, Gary Jobson, Cindy Wallach, Liza Copeland, John Martino, Jim Drury and many others.
You can attend the 3-day Cruising Preparation series, the 4-day Master Cruisers series, or the 1-day Cruisers Education series. There will be both classroom and on-board classes. There are technical series of classes covering diesel maintenance, electrical systems and modern navigation, plus cruising destination series (Bahamas, Caribbean, etc), and many individual seminars.
Pam and I thoroughly enjoyed Cruisers University last year and are excited to be back again this year. The energy and enthusiasm in the seminar rooms is contagious and our discussions are always lively and in-depth.
Cruisers University catches attendees at a crucial point: the men and women attending have a dream to go cruising but it is still an uncertain dream. Over the course of the weekend, they learn so much that the dream becomes a shared plan, and attendees leave eager and prepared to make their dream a reality. I love being able to contribute to that transformation. And what better place for it all to begin in than in Annapolis, truly a sailor’s town and home of the big Fall Annapolis Boat Show!
Here are the seminars I will be giving at Cruisers University:
All cruisers are trying to find the sweet spot of “exactly enough” — exactly enough spares, exactly enough gear, exactly enough provisions, exactly enough planning — but we all know, even as we strive, that our careful attempts at finding “exactly enough” are made in changing conditions based on incomplete knowledge and are bound to miss the mark regularly. …Read more
“Wow! How did you end up doing that?!“
These are the words I’ve come to expect from new acquaintances after telling them what I do for a living.
I’m a North-American woman in my late twenties, and for the last several years I’ve worked on and off on tall ships, mostly doing education work with youth. Right now I’m in Tasmania doing the same, and truly having the experience of a lifetime on a big sturdy brigantine at the threshold of the Southern Ocean.
I did not grow up on the water, and until I was 20 …Read more
We will be headed to my parent’s home next week. While we are there we will be telling them as well as my brother’s family that we are sailing away in 2013 (finally – yay!).
I have been surfing the internet looking for ideas and suggestions on how to best tell them and have not been able to locate much. I didn’t see anything specifically on the Women & Cruising. Perhaps I missed it.
Jessie’s book “The Cruising Woman’s Advisor” has some good info and so does Liza Copeland in “Cruising for Cowards” but I am looking for more input as I develop our discussion points and strategies for this discussion.
Any advice, suggestions, hints or resources you have on this topic for me would be greatly appreciated.
Ann, on HanaCrew, made a sad observation as we sat on deck in the marina in La Cruz: “Cruising seems to make men more manly, while women,” she noted, “watch their femininity disappear.”
Men become swarthy, they get to grow beards and have an excuse to be unwashed and scruffy.
Unfortunately, what can be dashing for men is not nearly so attractive in women!
The transition from landlubber looks to cruising couture happens quite rapidly.
For ease and convenience (and the preservation of bilge pumps) women often cut their hair shorter; Though in my case it was the result of having my daughter cut my hair while we were on a heel! …Read more
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It is fair to wonder if there is any lingo more alien to a newcomer than the jargon of sailors? “Boat speak” appears to be English (most of the time), but so many terms consolidate reams of meaning and process. How’s a newcomer to even get started?
by Priscilla Travis, has arrived on the scene to help you out.
We will be headed to my parent’s home next week. While we are there we will be telling them as well as my brother’s family that we are sailing away in 2013 (finally – yay!).
Ann, on 
