Written by Ben Ellison on Aug 8, 2017 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

The grins tell the story: Mission accomplished! Due to an obscure but noteworthy electrical glitch, plus oodles of embarrassingly distracted seamanship on my part, a sizable U.S. Coast Guard team spent part of a beautiful Saturday looking for an AIS man overboard alert that seemed to be associated with my boat Gizmo. Fireman Joey Jansen-Hedrick and Petty Officer 1st Class T.J. Iaci (above) were the boarding party that had to deal with an owner/operator (me) who was pretty sure they didn’t know what they were talking ...

Johnny Owens & Paul Rogan are 2/6th of the ‘Ireland to Iceland 2017’ crew whom we met on the docks in the faraway fishing town of Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides. Their gang of merry sailors were on an adventure to the Arctic in a 40-foot steel ketch, Johnny’s father as captain, making music as they want in the pubs along the way. We invited them to Isbjorn to share their story of adventure and creativity. Their expedition is designed to raise funds and awareness for Good2Talk Westmeath, a Mullingar, Ireland-based charity who provide Suicide Prevention, Counselling and Psychotherapy ...

I noticed this story a few days ago and finally found the time to study the available facts. This takes some concentration as the writing style of Belinda Govatos, the sailor/blogger who suffered through these events with her family and diligently recorded them on her website, Adventures of a Tribe, doesn’t seem to involve paragraphs. The story begins on the night of July 18, when according to Belinda’s account her husband Danny was keeping close watch on deck while she prepared dinner as their Leopard 46 catamaran Tanda Malaika, outbound from Mo’orea in French Polynesia, approached the atoll ...

The mornings GFS GRIB update – locally, it’s blowing even harder! Shame, because the wind direction is ideal!

“It’s blowing dogs off chains in Marstrand this morning!”

I wrote on Instagram at 0630 this morning announcing our delayed departure. I’d been up since 0500, planning for an early morning departure so we could ride the westerlies down the Kattegat, around Copenhagen & Denmark, and up into the Baltic towards the medieval city of Visby on the island of Gotland. A weather buoy just outside the harbor indicated sustained winds of 15.6 m/s, gusting to 19.7 m/s. That’s ‘meters per second,’ ...

The mornings GFS GRIB update – locally, it’s blowing even harder! Shame, because the wind direction is ideal!

“It’s blowing dogs off chains in Marstrand this morning!”

I wrote on Instagram at 0630 this morning announcing our delayed departure. I’d been up since 0500, planning for an early morning departure so we could ride the westerlies down the Kattegat, around Copenhagen & Denmark, and up into the Baltic towards the medieval city of Visby on the island of Gotland. A weather buoy just outside the harbor indicated sustained winds of 15.6 m/s, gusting to 19.7 m/s. That’s ‘meters per second,’ ...

“Thanks for the wake, @$$%*#!”  Unpleasant to imagine, unpleasant to hear, and rude on all sides. We haven’t heard that since leaving the USA and I don’t miss this aspect of many boaters in close proximity plus a dose of …well, of whatever it is that prompts throwing a wake or respond like that! They need to go cruising.

Summertime radio chatter included restrained and frequent USCG reminders not to use channel 16 for radio checks, to move conversations away from 16 (reserved for distress and hailing only), and more publicly aired inanity. And more from people who didn’t know ...

Andy & his dad Dennis flying the drone in Mollön Isbjorn in the background anchored to the cliffs.

I’m writing from the newly organized nav station on Isbjorn, our S&S Swan 48. We’re stern-to at the dock in Marstrand, the center of sailing on Sweden’s west coast. Next weekend in fact is the RC44 Cup, a creation of Russell Coutts that, according to the event website, “links the world’s most highly rated sailors with heavy profiles from the international business community. The RC44 is sealed by an 8-man squad consisting of 50% professionals and 50% amateurs.” The last time ...

Andy & his dad Dennis flying the drone in Mollön Isbjorn in the background anchored to the cliffs.

I’m writing from the newly organized nav station on Isbjorn, our S&S Swan 48. We’re stern-to at the dock in Marstrand, the center of sailing on Sweden’s west coast. Next weekend in fact is the RC44 Cup, a creation of Russell Coutts that, according to the event website, “links the world’s most highly rated sailors with heavy profiles from the international business community. The RC44 is sealed by an 8-man squad consisting of 50% professionals and 50% amateurs.” The last time ...