Dedicated to Cruising the world under sail including destinations, navigation, sailing tips, safety ideas, yacht & multihull reviews along with stories and insights for the sail cruising life in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
The second edition of ARC Channel Islands, organised by World Cruising Club in association with RYA Active Marina, came to a close at the weekend following a week long cruise exploring Cherbourg, Guernsey and Alderney from the rally's start port…
“Noumea” New Caledonia a long Island kinda lies south-east to north west. 30 N Miles wide and 220 miles long, sort of. Plenty of reef. The fringing reef well out with several well posted passages into the Lagoon. Once inside…
I must be really showing my age; the other day a lovely young lady stood up and offered me her seat on the tram. After I got home a long look in the mirror confirmed the sad fact, time has…
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…
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…
We all have a dream. We wanted to circumnavigate the world and part of that dream was to go through the French canals in our own yacht. In 2009 we finally found the yacht we were looking for in New…
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…
Sailors from around the Pacific and beyond are already signalling their intention to be part of the legendary Musket Cove Fiji Regatta, which will be staged from September 15-20 this year. Such is the interest in the colourful event, that…
Angelos Anastasiou of the Cyprus Mail Online reports a strange case of a sailboat with a broken mast and no crew: A crewless sailboat, which had been spotted some 90 miles south of Limassol two weeks ago but not found by…
Richmond Times – Dispatch. By Bill Lohmann. Three Virginia sailors, including a recently retired teacher from Richmond, were plucked from the cold waters of the North Atlantic on Wednesday after their 40-foot sailboat rolled over in stormy seas 200 miles…
Jon Sanders is nearing the end of his 10th circumnavigation of the planet. When things go quite on board, his mind goes into overdrive and he commits his random thoughts to paper – or rather, his computer. This is his…
Sailing rally organisers World Cruising Club (WCC) will be hosting a series of forums this autumn set to inspire sailors to extend their offshore cruising boundaries. Each forum will feature a panel of experienced blue water cruisers sharing their personal…
A family of four and their Labrador dog were rescued last night (Tuesday 25 July) by the volunteer Lyme Regis lifeboat crew, after their yacht was swamped by waves and sank at Charlton Bay, west of Lyme. The yacht was…
On Monday night as I sailed the final leg of the journey the winds were blowing from the NW to the NNW at 15 knots and I was making steady progress towards Albany. I was right on schedule racing along…
Jon Sanders is nearing the end of his 10th circumnavigation of the world. In this blog he ponders on the trade winds. The South Pacific Trade Winds – all the way across the Pacific. First one has to get into…
Lisa Blair, who became the first woman to circumnavigate Antarctica on July 21 when she crossed her track below 45 deg South. Last night (July 25) she returned to port in Albany to a raucous reception from a large waiting…
A few months ago, we ran a story about the disappearance of a Columbian woman from a catamaran off the coast of Florida. Her husband, a dual British and Australian citizen with links to a solar company in Queensland, claimed…
ResearchGate.net. By Katherine Lindemann. A team of scientists has confirmed the existence of another ocean garbage patch, this time in a remote area of the South Pacific. Unlike the famous patch in the northern Pacific Ocean, which has long been…
Lisa Blair has completed her circumnavigation of Antarctica below 45deg S, becoming the first woman to do so. She is now just 230nm from reaching her departure port of Albany in Western Australia. This blog was filed the night before……
Lisa Blair is about to become the first woman to circumnavigate Antarctica below 45 deg S. At 6am on July 21 she had just 720nm to go to the finish in Albany but she is likely to cross her track…
Jon Sanders is heading west on his 10th circumnavigation of theglobe. He ponders on all things nautical and delivers some gems. Hon. Ian Campbell former Australian Senator and Federal Minister has a Oyster 68 ft single mast yacht. It is…
Jon Sanders is currently heading back to Australia on his 10th circumnavigation of the globe. Island regions affect wind strengths. Often beginning several hundreds of miles distant. Generally less wind – up wind or down wind. Vis Rodriguez Island, Mauritius,…
This article first appeared on our sister website Marine Business. The Boating Industry Association has thrown its support behind the proposed Eden Marina development on the NSW South Coast, stating that its economic value is “greater than other investments in…
Evening All, Last night to my great disappointment the winds maintained 8-10 knots from the North to North West and even with the Full main sail and the genoa out I was only able to get 5 knots in speed…
Lisa Blair is nearing the end of her quest to become the first woman to circumnavigate Antarctica. Her is her latest blog: Evening All, Last night was a long night. I know I have been saying this a lot lately…
What do you do when people are in trouble but outside of Coast Guard helicopter range? Send in the paratroopers, of course, as Maritime Executive reports: On July 7, eighty U.S. Air Force personnel and four aircraft from the 920th…
According to the website Maritime Executive, the World Shipping Council (WSC) estimates that the average number of containers lost each year has dropped since 2014 by 48 percent. Based on the most recent survey results, an average of 568 containers…
Entries are now flowing in for Multihull Solutions’ cruising rallies in late 2017 with the events shaping up to become popular fixtures on the annual multihull calendar. Relaxed cruising is the primary focus of these events, which give participants the…
It was a busy weekend for AMSA's Coral Knight, assisting in two rescues. The first call out happened on Saturday night when the ship assisted a solo yachtsman with mechanical trouble off the coast of Cape Melville National Park. The…
Lisa Blair is in the final stages of her Antarctic cirumnavigation but the loss of her rig and subsequent repairs in Cape Town mean she is taking on the Southern Ocean in winter. After two days of calm conditions, the…
Lisa Blair is making good progress on the final leg of her circumnavigation of Antarctica. Having put in to Cape Town after breaking her mast, she is now halfway across the Indian Ocean and heading back to the starting point…
Jon Sanders is on his way back to Australia on his 10th circumnavigation of the globe. As always, his insights into the places he visits are priceless. Now Tahiti. A lot of years back France resumed underground nuclear testing at…
It is one month to the day since crews of the 2017 edition of ARC Portugal gathered together at Mayflower Marina in Plymouth, eagerly awaiting the latest weather forecast which would dictate their departure across the Bay of Biscay to…
Lisa Blair has resumed her solo circumnavigation of Antarctica after breaking her mast suth of Cape Town. Despite sailing deep in the Southern Ocean in mid-winter, yesterday she had no wind at all! Evening All, After my nice hot dinner…
It was not really in the schedule to visit the Antarctic we were just planning to see Patagonia, a major milestone in itself and then continue around South America. But when you meet people on boats that have sailed to…
During the past two years of sailing around Australia aboard our catamaran we have both asked and been asked many times about how much it costs to live on a boat. The anecdotal evidence I have gathered, usually during sundowners,…
The camaraderie of the sea has many dimensions and this can be increased with membership to one of the clubs in which cruisers congregate. The distinctive yellow pennant with a black cruising yacht under the press of a brisk wind…
When you make the decision to live onboard a boat you will be changing your whole way of life. In your new community people focus on caring and giving rather than jealousy and greed. You will find everyone looks out…
Ask sailors about their adventures in the South Pacific and they will rave about the whales in Tonga, the surf in Fiji and the volcanoes in Vanuatu but not many people mention New Caledonia. In fact, before we sailed through…
Photography in the digital age is an open and virtually endless topic, or series of topics. In this piece I will not attempt to cover the enormous breadth of the subject matter but rather stick to aspects of travel photography,…
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