Well, sometimes when you are reading a navigational chart, all those little symbols are so mysterious. NOAA used to print something called Chart 1 which explains what is going on. “Chart 1”:http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/mcd/chart1/chart1hr.htm is now available online so you can figure out mysterious, but important things like obstructions and wrecks when you are tooling around. Powered […]

Virtual Skipper has a bunch of European sites that have a huge number of boats that are designed for it. The skinning work is amazing, so check out and you put them in c:\program files\Virtual Skipper 4\Templates\ and create a file which is the name of the boat: * “Virtual Winds”:http://www.virtual-winds.com/modules/mydownloads/viewcat.php?op=&cid=48 * “VSK-Aus.com”:http://www.vsk-aus.com. These are […]

Chuck Husick on boatus.com. Darn it, the basic marine radio I bought I think I left on the boat while docked and it seems to have walked away. A good chance to get a pair that are good. Thank goodness for basic guides on the Internet. * Things you want are Receiver sensitivity. Most provide […]

Windstar Cruises. My brother was asking about cruises. I told him we’d not been on many, but had research it quite a bit (before the age of blogs). We really recommend the Windstar cruises. The Tahiti trip is amazing. The ship is just 400 feet long, all the cabins are the same and it is […]

Windworks Sailing Center. Connie and I just did the second round of classes on sailing over there. They have a really great series called “Adventure”:http://www.windworkssailing.com/adventure_lessons.htm Lessons where you don’t have to sit a class room and have the instructor say, please say “PORT” class, and you say, “PORT”. Instead, you read the book at home […]

NOAA Tidal Data. When sailing, its important to know what the tides are doing. This is the official NOAA site for this. Says that tomorrow at noon will be slack tide in Seattle at -2 feet below mean low/low tide. So, at 1PM or so, the tide is going to rising or surging.

The Landing School: Boats For Sale – LS 26 Weekender. What a beautiful boat that “Lewis”:http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/llevin/default.asp told me about. He’s looking for one that he can use in Maine. Also a nice one for around here. Also he finally explained to me why a sailboat actually moves forward. Let me short circuit this by saying […]