Cruising Destinations,Featured,Guest Dock
What’s in a name? Burgoyne Bay
July 1, 2022
Here's our latest destinations piece courtesy of Salish Sea Pilot about finding plentiful hiking on beautiful Salt Spring Island.... An almost daily treat in the warmer months is a lovely sunset to the west of Burgoyne Bay.…
Costa Rica Recap: The Pura Vida Experience
May 21, 2022
If you're planning to cruise Central America, don't skip Costa Rica. The good life is for real. Prior to November 2021, our family had never visited Costa Rica before. From friends and acquaintances who have come to Costa…
Seamanship & Navigation,Featured,Guest Dock
Introduction to Polar Diagrams and Optimum VMC
May 2, 2022
A polar diagram is a graphic presentation of a sailboat's sailing performance in various wind conditions. But how do you interpret it? The same information is also often presented in the form of a table or spreadsheet, which…
Destinations: Secrets of Sulphur Passage
April 25, 2022
Here's our latest installment from Jim Burgoyne of SalishSeaPilot.com about a seldom visited part of Vancouver Island's west coast. Riding the flow out the mouth of the Megin River was leaps easier than paddling the other…
Seamanship & Navigation,Featured,Guest Dock
How to Print NOAA Custom Charts
March 21, 2022
Traditional paper charts are in the process of being replaced with electronic navigational charts (ENC) and a new form of paper chart called NOAA Custom Chart (NCC), based on these ENC. In this new system, the user designs…
No More NWICSA: A Shift for College Sailing in the Region
January 31, 2022
Elected in 2021, Northwest Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NWICSA) Undergrad President Anna Morrow took over a conference in limbo at the end of a season impacted by remote learning, canceled competitions and minimal…
Instructional,Seamanship & Navigation,Featured,Guest Dock
Collision Avoidance Using AIS
January 21, 2022
As AIS becomes ubiquitous amongst boats of various sizes, it's important to know how to use it to avoid a collision. David Burch of Starpath Navigation offers a good tutorial here. Most navigation programs (electronic…
Cruising Destinations,Featured,Guest Dock
Destinations: Cozying up to Waiatt Bay
January 3, 2022
Enjoy our latest installment from Lynne Picard of SalishSeaPilot.com about a favorite anchorage on British Columbia's Quadra Island. With unsettled weather in our late-season forecast, we wanted a sheltered place to drop the…
Featured,Guest Dock,Cruising Technique
What’s life like on passage?
December 8, 2021
From Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Alaska, all the way south to Mexico and Central America, one of the things I've always enjoyed about writing this blog (going on 7 years!) is that I get to share our family's…
Cruising Stories,Featured,Guest Dock
Happily Home on the Sea
November 22, 2021
Last week I wrote a sailing story for the blog, but it felt a bit rushed to jump back in after so many months off and I didn't hit publish. We'd recently returned home to Yahtzee in southern Mexico, cleaned her up, gotten…