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I just returned from an excellent adventure, hiking in Patagonia. I spent seven days exploring spectacular trails in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz that’s also known as the gateway to the icy landscape of that country’s Glacier National Park. During long treks, the group I traveled with climbed high above treelines and against the famously gusty winds of the region. The experience was invigorating and the physical efforts were always rewarded with breathtaking views. And yet as much as I loved discovering the area on foot, I have to admit that my favorite part of the trip was the boat ride. That’s right, the boat ride. A big catamaran, to be specific. In Puerto Bandera, on the sandy edge of a sprawling cattle ranch, our group boarded an 80-plus-foot…
For the past half dozen years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been telling boaters that it plans to sunset its paper and raster nautical charts. That process was completed this past December, when the last of NOAA’s paper charts was canceled. Now, if boaters want printed-out charts from the government, they have to use the electronic NOAA Custom Chart program. Instead of boaters being able to order an updated paper chart by number—say, NOAA Chart 13230 for Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts—the Custom Chart program creates paper charts from the agency’s Electronic Nautical Chart database. This method satisfies regulations for larger ships, while recreational boaters can click on a defined area and then print out a chart based on their request. But this new way to get corrected, printed-out charts…
Much has been made of how SpaceX’s Starlink has altered the way boaters stay connected to the internet. It used to be that staying connected on your boat meant slow WiFi, pricey data plans, or unreliable service. Starlink offers fast, affordable internet for boaters, and with varying equipment and data plans, ensuring the proper equipment selection and plan is essential. Whether you’re trying to watch Netflix while traveling on the ICW or staying in touch with friends and family on ocean crossings, Starlink has become the go-to solution. Here are the dishes, plans and accessories boaters should use, so you can pick what’s best for you. STARLINK OPTIONS Starlink currently offers three hardware options that are recommended for boaters, which include the Starlink Mini, the Standard, and the Flat High…
“Kick the tires and light the fires!” That was something we would sometimes say in my Coast Guard days when heading out to the helicopter for a rescue mission. It was mild bravado, a way to make us feel…cooler. In contrast to any daring acts we might or might not perform on a mission, starting an aircraft or launching a rescue boat was a ritual of nerd-like checks and tests of systems and equipment that came after previous checks and briefs about the proposed mission and a review of the aircraft’s maintenance history. Thinking and talking about starting the engines took much longer than actually firing them up. We never rushed. We never looked like we were in a hurry. Show me footage of a crew running to a helicopter…
I took this past summer off and took my latest love, the motor vessel Puffin, for a 3-month cruise from my home state of Washington to Alaska. During that journey I had the time to review many of my old cruising habits, refine some, and help bring others up to date. One of those old habits came under scrutiny when I welcomed Soundings Deputy Editor Pim Van Hemmen aboard in Ketchikan, Alaska. I introduced Pim to the crew, gave him a tour of the boat and helped orient him to the systems, but somewhere along the line Pim passed by the chart table and eyed the sloppy-looking, scratched-on, yellow legal pad that served as my daily logbook. Pim later told me that he’d been surprised that Puffin, with all its…
LOA: 40’8” Beam 11’’7” Draft: 3’5” Displ.: 17,637 lbs. Fuel: 264 gals. Water: 55 gals. Power: (2) 400-hp Mercury outboards Max speed: 45 knots Food trucks, reggae music, balloons and Florida sunshine elevate the pleasant party atmosphere at MarineMax Pompano. Bopping around the docks are people who have been invited to this VIP event to get an exclusive look at the full line of boats from Finnish builder Saxdor. In the fleet is the 400 GTC, a new build that’s making headlines for its transformer-like qualities, as it can morph from a sexy Med-style open day boat to an adventure cruiser with a full-beam wheelhouse that stands up to cold days in Maine. I board the 400 GTC and meet a nice guy in his 50s wearing a Depeche Mode…
