Fancy going to Polperro next weekend?’ I asked my partner Chris on New Year’s Day. ‘We’ve finally got some high pressure coming in.’ I needed to visit Polperro as part…
Yachting Monthly
Just how visible are yachts to shipping?
Having worked aboard merchant vessels as well as being a yacht sailor myself, I’ve gained invaluable insights into the visibility challenges posed by small vessels and the critical importance of…
Don’t cross the Dover Strait. It’s thick with traffic out there
Forty years ago this summer I made my first Channel crossing according to an old, delaminating, mildewed and fading logbook. It is the first logbook I ever kept because prior…
How to plan a cruising route to the north: Sailing to Shetland and Norway
The wind is cold, the air clean and the light majestic. While sailing north might not be everyone’s idea of a relaxing holiday in the sun, for the adventurous of…
The Garmin fēnix 7 Solar Edition sold me on smartwatches and it’s at lowest price ever for Amazon Prime Day
I’ve tested the Garmin fēnix 7 Solar Edition over the course of more than a year of sailing and it has stood up very well. Now, this Amazon Big Deals…
‘Sometimes your boat knows best’
Zen Again was heading west for Africa. We had departed our home port of Fremantle, Western Australia in June. We visited Shark Bay, Cocos-Keeling Islands, Rodriquez, Mauritius and Reunion. Now…
‘Navigating infancy makes rock pilotage and tidal calculation look like a stroll in the park’ – Libby Purves
I applaud the idea of families with small children trying out what cruising would be like with them as crew. One of the many things never mentioned in National Childbirth…
Should you risk a short cut on a sailing passage?
George and Janet are on holiday in North Brittany on board their 10m yacht, Roller Coaster. North Brittany has a spectacular coastline with numerous offlying rocks which are up to…
Sailing Around Norway’s South Cape
This is what Thor-Erik had meant. ‘When you sail past Cape Lindesnes, you go from one world to another,’ he had said when we had moored alongside his boat in…
How safe is your yacht’s keel?
Few yachts have issues caused directly by the design of the keel. Almost all the failures I deal with are from hull damage that has gone unnoticed or poor repairs…