Thunder and lightning season approaches – are you ready for it? The Met Office tells us: Thunderstorms develop when the atmosphere is unstable – when warm air exists underneath much colder air. As the warm air rises it cools and condenses forming small droplets of water vapour. If there is enough instability in the air, …
Heaving – to effectively parks the boat at sea. You can heave – to for a lunch break or to weather a storm. Or, as Bernard Moitessier says in his classic The Long Way: “….when you no longer know what to do: come about without touching the sheets, put the helm alee, stretch out in …
Lightning at sea is a scary thing. When the lightning bolts are fizzing down around you is probably not the best time to start speculating on the efficacy of your lightning protection measures, so give it some thought before you find yourself in that situation. Let me say, first of all, that my boat has …
A young Canadian, David Welsford, fixes up a 28’ wooden sloop and heads for the Caribbean. This short video perfectly captures the spirit of adventure and self sufficiency that fuels such an undertaking: vimeo.com/94842405
Dylan Winter, he of Keep Turning Left fame, filmed the making of his new sail by Jeckells of Wroxham. I found it interesting; I hope you do, too. Jeckells has been a sailmaker since 1831 so you get a lot of accumulated skill and knowledge when you entrust your sail making to their hands.
Halyards, sheets, guys and other control lines are the boats sinews, they transfer the load from the muscles to the site of the work. They hoist and trim the sails that move the boat. There are two basic construction methods for boat line – three-strand and braided. Three-strand is used for docking and anchor …
It’s the longest day of the year. Summer. It’s cold, windy and wet. So, my mind turns to hammocks. A hammock on a tropical beach, perhaps, or a hammock on a boat that’s anchored off a tropical beach. Slung between the mast and the forestay. That’s how we did it on Adriana. I find the …
It’s the longest day of the year. Summer. It’s cold, windy and wet. So, my mind turns to hammocks. A hammock on a tropical beach, perhaps, or a hammock on a boat that’s anchored off a tropical beach. Slung between the mast and the forestay. That’s how we did it on Adriana. I find the …
Summer may have finally arrived which means it’s time to remind you all of the dangers of drowning. Drowning is not a noisy, dramatic event. Our body’s response to suffocation by water is quite different to the commonly held view that it involves waving arms and shouting for help. That comes before you are drowning. …