#TBT: Small-Boat Summer in Desolation Sound
This great story about slowing down in Desolation Sound was originally published in the October 2024 issue of 48° North. With summer cruising season upon us, it's one we're glad to revisit in our latest Throwback Thursday!…
Tech Talk with SeaBits: Your Digital Spares Kit
Ask any experienced cruiser what they carry for self-sufficiency and they’ll talk about impellers, belts, zincs, and hose clamps. That kind of mechanical preparedness is drilled into us from day one, and for good reason. But…
Shifting Gears: Preparing for Summer Cruising
Spring is here, and last summer's…
Diesel Deep Dive: Engine Blow-by
A few months ago, I finished installing a brand new factory-built Yanmar 4JH57 on a client’s 44-foot sailboat. As I completed my initial checks and started the engine for the first time, I opened the oil fill cap to check…
TBT: Tech Talk with SeaBits: Spring Tech Checkup
This article was originally published in the March 2022 issue of 48° North A great thing to do at least once a year, and especially prior to the start of a more active boating season, is to give your boat a tech checkup.…
Diesel Deep Dive: A Good Engine Break-In
After a lot of hard work, money, and diligence, you finally have a new or freshly rebuilt engine installed in your boat. Congratulations! Speaking from personal experience, it feels so good to have an engine that starts…
Necessary or Nice: Who’s Steering This Thing?
We were supposed to be sailing west: due west, in fact. Yet when I popped up into the cockpit for the pending watch change at the top of the hour, somehow, we were sailing… north? It didn’t make any sense. We’d been sailing…
Diesel Deep Dive: Repairs Over the Airwaves
As a marine mechanic, I find myself traveling all over to fix diesel engines, but there are also a lot of repairs that I help with from the comforts of my boat. Sometimes, travel is out of the question for various reasons,…
Tech Talk with Sea Bits: Analog in a Digital World
After a couple-year hiatus, 48° North’s technology columnist is making a return, and we’re so excited to welcome Steve back. It’s the same great SeaBits style, but he’s made a boat upgrade to a cool steel trawler, and has…
Necessary or Nice: Cruising With a Code Zero
Wonderful, Fussy, Mostly Unnecessary
Sea…