Author co_admin

Cruising Life
By

7-Point Diesel Engine Checklist

Here’s some basic, but important, advice from Skipper Tips about how to make sure that all is well once you start your boat’s diesel engine(s): You turn the key, push the diesel engine starter button and your engine starts just like you expect it to. But did you realize that you have seven quick checks to make that could spell the difference between a trouble-free day or a long, slow tow back to the marina dock? Follow these seven tips from marine diesel guru Peter Compton: 1. Watch for Exhaust Water. Look over the side. Make sure you have water…

Cruising Life
By

Fossil Found of 40-Foot-Long Sea Monster

If you’re worried about today’s great white shark, consider the pliosaur, a 40-foot long sea monster with 130 teeth that roamed the oceans of the world some 150 million years ago. British scientists just unearthed a fossil of its skull, which was 6’ 5” long. Here’s the story from the BBC: The skull of a colossal sea monster has been extracted from the cliffs of Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. It belongs to a pliosaur, a ferocious marine reptile that terrorised the oceans about 150 million years ago. The 2m (6ft 5in)-long fossil is one of the most complete specimens of its…

Cruising Life
By

How To Find Your Distance from a Landfall

You’re coming into a harbor and your electronics aren’t working (believe me, it happens). You need to figure out how far away you are from making a landfall. Here is some great advice from Skipper Tips about how to figure this out on your own: In a pitch black night, you squint through the binoculars to try to pick up Libby Island lighthouse off the rugged coastline of Maine. The nautical GPS shows you dead on track and the light should be visible from 18 miles (note the abbreviation 18M). Right now, you estimate you are just about 18 nautical…

Cruising Life
By

NOAA: Celebrate National Seafood Month

According to NOAA, October is National Seafood Month. Who knew? In any event, even though we’re more than halfway through the month, we still can make up for lost time. Here’s a list of seven ways to celebrate, as collated by NOAA Fisheries: 1. Learn What Makes U.S. Seafood Sustainable In the United States, sustainable seafood is not only a possibility, it’s our priority. Fish, shellfish, and marine algae are renewable resources—they can reproduce and replenish their populations naturally. That means we can sustainably harvest fish within certain limits without depleting their populations. Fishery management is the process of using science…

Cruising Life
By

How To Navigate Safely in Fog

Here are some great tips from Motor Boat & Yachting about how to deal with fog: If you’re still in port and in a boat without radar, perhaps you want to reconsider your trip and stay where you are. If you’re already underway and you run into fog, here’s what to do to keep everyone safe: Put on lifejackets. Double-check your position and write it down. Start making the appropriate sound signals. Slow down so you can react immediately to any threat, whether that’s represented by another boat or a pile of rocks. If the fog is really thick, head…

Cruising Life
By

How To Use RACONs for Coastal Cruising

Here’s some great advice from Skipper Tipsabout how to use RACONs to help you navigate safely when you’re cruising along the coast: Imagine you are approaching the busy port of Miami on a pitch black night, in blustery winds and a choppy sea. When still 6 miles away, you turn on your radar and see a cluster of buoys, beacons, and vessels, and each target appears as a separate dot on the radar scope. Your eyes strain with fatigue as you scan the cluster of contacts, trying to pick out the Miami sea buoy, marking the entrance to the harbor.…

Cruising Life
By

How To Dock in Wind or Current

Here some great advice from Skipper Tips about how to dock safely even when there’s a strong wind or current. Take heed: Imagine you need to dock your boat in a strong, gusty wind between two other boats. The wind is blowing from ahead of your bow and parallel to the pier. How can you make this docking challenge easier? Follow these five easy steps. Stop into any marina on a weekend and you’re bound to see several great and not-so-great docking approaches. The best approaches are never about speed or quickness, but about command and control. Keep your bow…

Cruising Life
By

Canadian Completes Greater Loop on a Kayak

Mark Fuhrmann,  a 65-year-old adventurer, just became the first person to complete the Great Loop on a kayak. Actually, Fuhrmann completed the so-called Greater Loop, since he started and ended in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His epic voyage covered 6,800 nm and lasted 268 days. Here’s the story from the Good News Network: After 268 days in his kayak, a 65-year-old has completed his epic ‘Reverse the Bad’ expedition, becoming the first person to solo kayak the Greater Loop across Canada and the United States. The journey of almost 6,800 miles (11,000km) required Mark Fuhrmann to paddle for 1,643 hours—which is…

Cruising Life
By

9-year-old Girl a Star in Docking Competition

You’re worried about docking your boat? Take a look at Peyton Reiss, all of nine-years-old, who’s become a star in the Chesapeake Cowboys workboat docking competition. Peyton, from Tilghman Island, has no problems handling a workboat with the same speed and accuracy as professional waterman. Take a look at her performance last weekend during Waterman’s Appreciation Day at St. Michaels, Maryland, in this video from Chesapeake Bay Media: https://chesapeakebaymagazine.com/video-9-year-old-md-girl-wows-in-boat-docking-competitions/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edDl1cO-3U&t=1s

Electronics
By

Stay Safe: Set Up Your Boat’s MMSI

Here’s some great advice from America’s Boating Club, formerly the U.S. Power Squadrons, about how to set up your MMSI (Maritime Mobile Service Identity), a major safety feature. Read on: If your boat has a dedicated marine radio, GPS or AIS, your boat systems are not complete until you also have a Maritime Mobile Service Identity, or MMSI. The nine-digit MMSI uniquely identifies your vessel, which is crucial in the event of an on-the-water emergency. “Each boat is unique. Beyond having a physical name that can be seen up close, each deserves to have its own MMSI that can be…

1 2 3 4 … 11