All your instructional guides for Cruising


In at the deep end

Provisioning in a foreign port often means reading the labels carefully. Here the author is
compiling an inventory of tinned and packaged goods.

Getting from A to B offshore can be demanding enough, let alone in a boat you are unfamiliar with and in a strange country. Sharon Smallwood explains how she and husband Julian prepared for the task when they took delivery of a new boat in Malaysia.

Cascade - a Mottle 33

In floating tent mode at Fame Cove, Port Stephens.

John Needs and his family find plenty to like about their ever-green Mottle 33, Cascade.

Painting is his passion

Have you ever read a cruising story and become so involved with the voyage that you almost felt you were on board? Well, this is what marine artist Jack Woods feels as he works on his paintings of cruising yachts. He talks about his passion.

Zones of confidence

Charting the way...knowing how accurate your chart is is essential.

How can you assess if a chart you are using is reliable? Mike Prince, Director of Charting, Australian Hydrographic Service, tackles this and other related issues.

Ratios for dummies

Dufour 525.

Ever seen funny-looking numbers in the stats box at the end of a boat review? Weird stuff like ballast/displacement = 0.35 or SA/disp = 16.7? John Champion explains what they mean and how to use them to help you determine which boat is right for you.

Logs and chartwork: Just Cruising by Keith Fleming

Should the electronic plotter go on the blink or the handheld GPS fail, what do you do?

Perfect patches

Necessity is the mother of invention, Christine Muir and Keith Hunt discover when their dinghy is stolen and damaged.

Kids and parents

Alice Hawkins, 11, who is 90 percent of the way through a world circumnavigation, talks about the highs and lows of life on the high seas and offers some advice for kids and parents following in her wake.

Plotting your way through the electronic maze

Choosing what kind of electronic navigational system to buy can be confusing, with a myriad of products on the market. Jon Neeves leads the way through the maze with this look at chartplotters and other options.

Danger lies in the darkness

Ships can travel at up ti 18 knots.

Steve Hopkinson and wife Rachel thank their lucky stars for the latest electronic addition to their crew, an Automatic Identification System, when they find themselves on a collision course with a large ship.

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