Cruising World February 2016

Before embarking on a new long-distance passage, a prudent sailor hauls the boat to make sure the vessel, systems and gear are ready for sea. Well, over the last few months, the Cruising World staff has been busy doing just that. And now, with our February issue, we’re taking the plunge, confident we’re prepared for the voyage ahead. First, the obvious. By now you’ve no doubt noticed that this month’s magazine looks and feels different. It’s heavier. The paper is a little thicker and brighter. And the cover has been revamped; its finish is textured. The logo has been updated, and we’ve changed the way we tease to stories inside. The paint crew — in this case, our art department — has been hard at work sprucing up the Old…

For the last few years, Mick, Bee and Toots the cat have sailed a yellow-hulled, redensigned ketch over the chilly waters of the Gulf of Maine, Labrador Sea and Davis Strait. They run this 36-foot ferrocement double-ender with wine-red sails as a true wind ship, the engine rarely in use. Since 2002, the boat has crossed the Atlantic four times, once the hard way, leaving for the Caribbean after cruising the Outer Hebrides and Ireland. But all the charms of the tropics haven’t kept them from returning to Labrador and Greenland in search of true adventure. The remote, unpopulated northern latitudes are a demanding area to sail, still incompletely charted, especially on digital plotters. The good ship Hannah serves them well. They find the heavy-displacement hull is more comfortable in…

Use Your Head for a More Stable Toilet Seat “Don’t laugh,” writes Pam Wall. “This is a serious business! How many of you have been sailing in a brisk headwind heeled over, or a rolling quarter sea, or a seriously lumpy piece of ocean? You go below to relieve yourself, and the boat is bouncing around, maybe heeled over quite far, and that toilet seat is sliding all over the place!” Read Pam’s toilet seat tips, including some DIY modifications, at her blog, Pam Says. cruisingworld.com/1602head Hurricane Hole The Robertson family is preparing Del Viento to ride out the tropical cyclone season on a mooring in the relatively protected waters of the Vava‘u island group in Tonga. Michael Robertson writes: “It’s unnerving. There is no concrete, perfect list of things…

Our belly-dancing fellow sailors (“Be It Hermit or Herd,” January 2016) are both doctors. Dr. Nadire Berker (with the diamond in her navel) is an orthopedic pediatrician and a specialist in cerebral palsy. Her husband, Selim Yalcin, was head of orthopedic surgery at Istanbul’s largest teaching hospital. They have written many medical textbooks as well as a huge book on Istanbul’s maritime history. They have been dispensing a lot of free medical advice for patients and local doctors as they travel around the world on their boat. — Carolyn Goodlander, Via email NOW THERE YOU GO AGAIN Once again, you’ve taken a wonderful story about cruising with kids, “Hunting for the Kids Fleet” (October 2015), and ruined it with accompanying photos of children not wearing PFDs. Astonishingly, this seems to…

Something special unites the three boats gathered in our gorgeous anchorage off New Zealand’s Great Mercury Island. All three are small and modest but sturdy vessels; our 1981 Dufour 35, Namani, is the newest of the three. It also has the biggest cockpit — a rare thing in today’s cruising society, where popular misconception seems to hold that anything under 40 feet isn’t suitable for leaving the coast. Yet two of those three boats have sailed halfway around the world from Europe (with children aboard, no less), while the third is crewed by two brothers from North America. It isn’t just the size and age of our vessels that brings us together in an unofficial club of sorts. None of us have a working anchor windlass either (not to mention…

Heading down to the Bahamas? Getting there is only half the fun. There’s local food to try, music to hear, festivals to attend, and then there’s boat business: shopping for provisions and boat parts, filling the water tanks, doing the laundry, sending the mail. It can be a long list. How do you get around? Simple. You hitchhike. In the Bahamian out islands, hitchhiking is a common mode of transportation for locals and visitors alike. It’s easy and safe, and it works. Every time. Three rules: 1) Cars drive on the left, so stand on the proper side of the road. 2) Stick out your left hand, palm down, and make a motion as though you were patting the head of a large dog. 3) This is the best rule,…