The Fountain Pajot MY 44 has three staterooms, one so big that it’s dubbed the “private apartment.”
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Happy belated New Year! Hope everyone’s holidays were fantastic!
Blue Turtle and crew had a short post-Christmas cruise like always, however, this year it was plagued with the flu/cold/crud. Our original cruising plan was to leave Fort Myers Beach the day after Christmas and head north to Cayo Costa and a new destination we’ve been wanting to visit, Don Pedro Island. We’d heard reports that red tide was pretty bad in the area and so decided that we would delay and day and head south to Keewaydin Island. As usual, Keeywaydin Island was beautiful but unfortunately, Randy and I weren’t very active since we were sick. I guess if you have to be sick somewhere, Keeywaydin is a great spot since since we had beautiful sunset views of the Gulf of Mexico. I don’t think we ever left the boat and went to shore but at least we had gorgeous views which is way better than being at the dock.
Cruising the Gulf of Mexico our way to Keeywaydin
Beautiful and busy Keeywaydin
Sun setting over Keeywaydin Island
Randy and Corey chill on the bridge in the late afternoon
Corey on the other hand, lucked out. He didn’t catch what we had AND a fellow friend from the wake board cable park where he goes came by Blue Turtle 3 days in a row and picked him up in his wake board boat to take him out. Talk about lucky! He got to escape the sneezing and hacking on Blue Turtle and got to wake board behind a professional boat. At least one of us had a great time!
Corey got picked up daily to go go wake boarding … lucky kid!
On about our third day at Keeywaydin our generator wouldn’t start. Randy (while sick) spent almost 2 days in the engine room trying to get the starter to work. Several YouTube videos and disassemblies later, he declared the starter fried. Since we only needed the generator to charge batteries (no AC needed in the winter!) we decided to stay a couple more days and run the main engine to charge things up. While this did work for us there were a couple drawbacks like the hot water heater wouldn’t work and I couldn’t run the microwave or cooktop. This meant cold showers (did I mention it was cold that week?) and cold food (unless I grilled in the 15 knot wind) for two days. After two days of “glamping” I was ready to head home for a hot meal and warm shower. Needless to say we now have a brand new starter for the generator waiting to be installed and we are looking forward to the next cruising trip where we will be a little more energetic.
Randy gets comfy in the engine room with some YouTube tutorials
Our disassembled generator starter
Sun melting over the Gulf of Mexico … better view than the dock!
For starters, I’m anxiously awaiting the March 2018 issue of PassageMaker magazine in which my very first published article (and photos) will appear. I wrote a piece about cruising to the Dry Tortugas and can’t wait to see the finished article in REAL. LIVE. PRINT!
Also, we’ve been invited again to do a cruising seminar for TrawlerFest in Stuart, FL in March. We’ll be giving our “Cruising to the Dry Tortugas” presentation and I will be sitting on a panel of women cruisers answering questions of all kinds for the Admiral’s Roundtable session. I’ll be posting more info on this very soon.
Finally, this May we will be celebrate 6 (SIX!) years living aboard Blue Turtle. I can’t believe it and I can’t believe that I’ve been blogging here about it that long. I’d like to invite you, our readers, to send in any questions you may have about living aboard and this lifestyle or any questions about cruising. We receive a lot of blog comments and messages from the website and I’ve done the best I can to answer each one. I’ve realized that some of the same questions get asked more frequently and that it might be helpful to feature them on the blog with lengthier answers so that it may help other readers out there as well. So, hit us up on our contact form and ask away!
We’re looking forward to another amazing year aboard Blue Turtle and are so happy to have you along for the ride!
The post Another New Year for Blue Turtle and crew appeared first on Blue Turtle Trawler.
The post Another New Year for Blue Turtle and crew appeared first on YachtAweigh.
Yachting took a cruise with Hennessy around the Big Apple and topped it all off with a tasting of vintage Cognac.
The post Video: Yachting Cruises Manhattan With Hennessy appeared first on YachtAweigh.
The Tiara 4200 Open is a versatile vessel that is popular with cruisers and anglers alike.
The post Brokerage: The Tiara 4200 Open appeared first on YachtAweigh.
Here are 10 cozy cabins you can actually rent
Indulge in a hideaway made for hygge by booking one of these cozy retreats.
10Best Editors
Wednesday, January 10th, 2018
Read Full Content Here
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I recently received an email with a host of questions about outfitting a boat for offshore sailing and my opinions on a wide variety of related topics. While I’m mostly reluctant to give hard-and-fast “this is what you should do or have” type answers, the last question on the list piqued my interest because it didn’t ask whether something was needed or not (which isn’t at all for me to decide). It simply asked what my practical knowledge was.
The question: “What is your experience with AIS systems?”
Yahtzee’s AIS system.
The reason the query drew my attention is because it immediately brought to mind several poignant experiences I’ve had with AIS (Automatic Identification System) aboard. While I’m certainly not the tech guru or authority on AIS systems, I do have a large number of sea stories to share about using the system and what I’ve found to be the benefits associated with it. Off the top of my head popped multiple experiences I’ve had using AIS just in the past year or two alone. Here is one from a delivery Jill and I did.
Collision Course in the North Atlantic
It’s the middle of the night in the stormy North Atlantic Ocean. Scanning the horizon, all I see is black — probably the darkest night I’ve experienced at sea. Wind howls from the northeast at 30 to 33 knots, gusting to 40. Rain is pouring down in sheets. Wave heights — at their smallest — are in the low teens. Some of the waves seem monstrous, others are breaking on our stern and we’re sailing the well-suited Garcia Exploration 45 at a “conservative” 9 to 11 knots with surfs up to 15. Woohoo!
When Jill relieves me from watch, I show her a commercial fishing trawler on AIS running at a similar speed a little over 2 miles off our port side. Though we can barely make it out on the horizon, we know it’s there. In the moment, we seem to be parallel to one another and staying clear, but are actually angling towards a collision course. I express to Jill that my hope is for the vessel to alter course just enough to pass behind us, and we talk about our options before I hit my bunk for some much needed sleep.
There were a couple problems that we identified during our brief chat. First and foremost was that the seas were so large and rain so heavy that, even though the trawler was relatively close, it was nearly impossible to keep a visual on. Its running lights were virtually useless, making AIS and radar key assets.
The second problem was that we were sailing on a deep broad reach with a triple reefed mainsail on a preventer. In order to avoid a collision, if one became imminent, we’d have to jibe. Rounding up in these seas is not an option. And the issue with jibing is that the maneuver will take a long time to execute and, in the conditions given, would have been hazardous to the boat and us. Plus, we would then need to jibe back onto our original course once we cleared the trawler. Basically, we are pinned down and virtually blind — save for the AIS and radar.
With the AIS, we know the vessel’s name, course and speed, among other things, and are constantly monitoring its movements relative to ours. Plus, it has the same information about us. In a sort of a dazed half state of sleep from my bunk, I eventually hear Jill call the trawler by name on the radio, briefly explain our situation and arrange for it to pass behind us. Easy as that. I fell asleep.
After the situation was resolved, and many times since, I was extremely glad to have had the benefit of AIS. Yes, without it there is a chance we still would have seen the fishing boat. But in my estimation, there is also a good chance that we wouldn’t have. And the fact that we could both “see” each other and knew, at the very least, boatspeed, course and range, meant that we could monitor the situation accurately and then make a call to avoid colliding or having to do a difficult course change hundreds of miles offshore in a fall gale.
AIS for the win!
This same scenario actually occurred numerous other times on that delivery in similar conditions.
The post AIS for the win appeared first on YachtAweigh.
The start marked the culmination of a week of preparatory activities as the yachts and crews readied themselves for the adventure of a lifetime. Four late starters will follow on their 815 nautical mile passage to Santa Marta in Colombia shortly once last minute minor technical problems have been resolved.
Early morning activity on the pontoons had already given away that today was somewhat different. As crews prepared themselves for departure there were no signs of nerves at the prospect of the long journey around the world which lay ahead, and surprisingly few indications of sore heads from last night’s fabulous Farewell Party hosted by the St Lucia Tourism Authority at the Bay Gardens Resort on the beach a short distance from the Marina. At the event, St Lucia’s Minister of Tourism, Information and Broadcasting Hon Dominic Fedee bade the participants farewell and emphasised the economic benefits and other significance of their stay in St Lucia. The atmosphere of the party was testament to the strong sense of community that has already formed amongst the Rally’s 138 participants.
World Cruising’s Operations Director Andy Bristow thanked the Minister for the hospitality of St Lucia and the support provided to the World ARC Rally by the St Lucia Tourism Authority and Events Company St Lucia.
by World Cruising
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