Each day starts with a renewed attack on the work list, and each day that attack is blunted by visitors. Rich, John S, Sebastian, the owner of Comet, Bob, James, Rob, Ben, Sandy, Phil…the names go on. These interruptions, “the many snares of popularity,” are not the least unpleasant, and some even mature into dinners at the club.
A mere twelve days ago, I was enjoying the habit of eating my meals cold from a can; now I am served fresh haddock, salmon and lamb accompanied by beer colder than the ocean. One would think such a transition might be ...
Land ho! Sailing into Town Cut in beautiful Bermuda.
To bring us up to the present, the end of the last trip to Bermuda saw backing winds and beautiful sun as we made landfall on the west side of the island at sundown. Gibb’s Island light hove into view just after dark. I’d never approached the island from the west like that, but it was considerably easier than coming from the north, with no danger of the off-lying reefs. The wind cooperated and we beam-reached the last 30 miles of the passage, rounding up towards Town Cut and almost able ...
The Maretron MPower 12 Channel DC Load Module that’s slowly rolling out this year may look like just another darn black box, but it’s a watershed product in my estimation. If you’re a technical dealer, a custom builder, or a savvy DIY boat owner already familiar with Maretron’s vast monitoring ecosystem, you’ll get impressive yet inexpensive distributed power and digital switching capabilities that integrate well with a system you may already service or own.
Moreover, MPower also marks the company’s consolidation with much larger Carling Technologies, which intends to grow what is now the Maretron brand with additional resources, significant ...
As referenced in a previous post, John Harries, author of the well-known voyaging website, Attainable Adventure Cruising, came to visit Mo at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron last week.
John has long advocated the use of the Jordan Series Drogue and so was interested to explore the issues Mo had with the drogue during a recent North Atlantic gale.
By way of reminder, the drogue bridle wrapped the Monitor wind vane late in the blow, causing serious damage. More on that here.
What follows is a snippet of our conversation, a short video shot entirely by John. ...
The Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron
Halifax, Nova Scotia
I noticed barnacle growth before our first pass at Cape Horn, just one or two, spied going about their business in the eddies off Mo’s transom. And then, over the course of the Southern Ocean circuit, each time I hung myself over the stern to work on Monte, the numbers I could observe grew. Within a few months, were clearly hosting a colony.
A diverse colony of at least three species. The gorilla of the group was entirely purple, carried a long, thick stem at the end of ...
It’s been a while since you’ve heard from “my lovely wife,” but with Randall and Mo now tucked safely into a Halifax marina, a number of my non-sailor friends have been asking me questions about the voyage. The same questions. I’m the in-house expert on the non-sailorly stuff, so I thought I’d do a quick FAQ for everyone.
So, here we go…
1. Has Randall broken the “rules” for this voyage by stopping?
The short answer is: no, there are no rules. It wouldn’t matter if Randall stopped once or a 100 times (which ...
A Blue Sea M2 1838 Meter installed on the side of the control box for Have Another Days Salon AC
Have Another Day is currently in Fort Myers on the Caloosahatchee River. It’s quite warm here with daily highs in the low to mid 90s. As a result, the water in the marina is also quite warm at nearly 90 degrees. Last month Have Another Day sucked down over $300 in electricity, that’s more than she uses in an entire season in Chicago. During the day, with the thermostat set to 76 degrees the salon air conditioner runs nearly continuously ...
I’m again the caretaker of a floating vessel. Whenever Satori is in the water she occupies a place in the back of my mind. I flip through the mooring lines, fenders, seacocks; the boat next door with the sketchy looking shore power cable. A boat in the water is a creature that requires care and attending to.
Other than a strange airlock in the injector pump, the boat largely was recommissioned without much drama. I also remembered how to drive it, making a solo back into the slip look like I knew what I was doing. Backing a boat ...
Making an unknown shore by boat, alone, and following a longish interval at sea is a perfectly normal way to arrive at a place; at least this is what repeated experience suggests. So, I am surprised at the greeting that follows arrival here.
The Dock Master, Wayne, meets Mo at the slip to take lines. “You must have friends,” he says as I jump ashore, nearly breaking a leg.
You may have heard that our friends at Atlas Ocean Racing have suffered a loss of one of their boats, the Volvo 60 Esprit du Corps. They were returning to Canada after a very successful Caribbean winter circuit and approaching the entrance to Lunenburg harbor when they were caught in a sudden squall. A headsail went over the side and got tangled up with the propellor rendering the engine useless. The boat drifted toward land and washed up on the rocks. Salvage was difficult and the boat continued to sustain additional damage. Recently, in cooperation with their insurance company, they ...
