Table of contents for May/June 2022 in PassageMaker

NAMES Lachlan Palmer and Michelle Zimmer AGES 28 CURRENT BOAT 1991 39 Novi Westcaper HOME PORT Brentwood Bay, British Columbia YEARS OWNED 4 Lachlan Palmer was destined to be a boater. “Right from the get-go, I was surrounded by boats,” he tells Passagemaker. “I grew up boating around the Gulf Islands with my family, aboard my uncle’s 28-foot William Garden-designed trawler and my grandfather’s 1967 32-foot Tollycraft Sedan.” Palmer’s other grandparents lived on the waterfront in Brentwood Bay. He spent summers there on his 7½-foot clinker (powered by a 2-hp Johnson), where he’d practice docking and weaving through decrepit pilings in Tod Inlet. For the last few years, Palmer has been a member of the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue, stationed out of Brentwood Bay. Michelle Zimmer started kayaking…

In the second part of our series on navigating under bridges, we’re going to review how to safely communicate with bridgetenders, and how to handle your boat around the structures. Communications and Schedules Bridges over most of the country’s waterways monitor VHF channel 13, however, there are regional differences; for example, in Florida, they monitor channel 9. Most bridgetenders prefer that you wait until you are in sight of the bridge before calling for an opening. Given the close proximity in which you will be calling, waiting also allows you to set your radio to low power, which helps reduce interference from other nearby communications. If you are approaching a bridge that only opens at a set time, do not assume it will open for you at that time without…

Recently, I was digging through my file of “less than optimal boating decisions,” a collection of errors made during decades of boating, and which I prefer to avoid repeating. In the assemblage, I found half of what was once a pair of Cole Haan slip-on dress loafers. Having served their intended work purpose, they were relegated to yard work and various outdoor activities, and somehow ended up adorning my feet while I was at sea. For reasons still unclear, I left the house in them for a day of crabbing aboard a nice, mid-20-foot sportfisherman. The crabbing was a great success; the choice in footwear was not. I ended up entering the water a bit while launching the boat. (First mental note: Wet leather dress shoes do not dry quickly.)…

In the past 20 years, marine electronics advanced by leaps and bounds with a rapid introduction of new products. In the past few years, though, we’ve seen something different. Electronics manufacturers are changing their hardware much less frequently, and instead are adding new capabilities through software updates. As the equipment on your boat ages past 10 years old, you may be starting to encounter limitations. These can include the availability of updated cartography, the ability to integrate with newer technologies such as AIS and satellite weather, or slow performance and less-reliable operation. So, maybe it’s time for an upgrade. But what does that mean? Is it necessary to replace all the equipment and start from scratch? Not necessarily. A full electronics refit for a cruising boat can easily total $20,000…

SHANTY 36 LOA: 36ft. 2in. Beam: 12ft. 4in. Draft: 2ft. 5in. Displacement: 14,500 lbs. Engine: 2 x 60-hp outboard In the dead of winter, on those dark nights with the wind moaning through the trees, I often think about how wonderful it is to be in a backwater with my toes dipped in the drink, at peace with nature and life. I think most of us share the notion that a bit of shanty boating would be a grand way to pass some time: securely anchored in some cove, out of the brunt of the wind and far away from the buzz of the daily news cycle. Shanty boats can run the gamut from fixed float-house types to self-powered examples. The waters you frequent will determine whether you need a…

Having sailed most of my adult life, almost exclusively on monohulls, the notion of a trip on a power cat was about as strange as a dog with two tails. So, when I arrived in the Caribbean with a few friends and a magazine assignment to spend five days on board one, I was skeptical. But 15 minutes off the dock, I could officially label myself a convert: The sprawling main deck, the absence of rigging and sails to tend, the privacy offered via the four-corner, en suite cabins and the settled ride through the sloppy chop in the Trades quickly convinced me I’d been missing something big and important. Something big and important in that vein showed up at February’s Miami International Boat Show with the debut of the…

It’s been said that death and taxes are inevitable. I would add corrosion and rust to that list, at least for boats in salt water. I do virtually all of my boating in the salt, and every great day ends with a good bath of the boat’s exterior to remove as much salt as I can. Even if I get back to the dock in the dark, I will rinse the boat religiously to remove the big pieces of salt, and then do a complete wash first thing the next day. I am a salt person at heart. That includes being committed to battling the corrosive nature of the brine. Stainless steel is a blend of metals; underwater, it will stain less than other metals, but it is not always…

The Northern Marine shipyard is at the end of a gravel road on Fidalgo Island, which is home to the city of Anacortes, Wash. It’s about halfway between Seattle and Vancouver, and a favorite departure point for boaters headed to the nature-rich San Juan Islands. This is where the newest Northern Marine 57 (Hull No. 6 of the model) recently launched, with the builder calling it the best-equipped 57 with the most lavish interior to date. It’s also Northern Marine’s first build since reopening after the pandemic, under new ownership with Seattle Yachts. All this context swirled in my mind as Stuart Archer, general manager of Northern Marine and a naval architect, met me outside on crutches with a banged-up knee. The Boatyard The factory buzzed with workers as Archer…

My childhood was filled with stories of the hurricane-battered ships lost between the Tortugas and the Marquesas, the most famous being the Nuestra Señora de Atocha. I tried to imagine that passage, leaving from Cuba for Spain and running afoul of a storm, littering the treasures of the Spanish Empire strewn across the seafloor. I gazed down at the cobalt water, amazed that I could see bottom. My husband, Mike and I had many expectations for our short trip to the Dry Tortugas aboard Stacy’s World, our 47-foot Concorde motor cruiser, but rescuing three Cuban refugees in 15-foot seas was not one of them. Traveling to the westernmost islands in the Florida Keys was a childhood dream of mine. I could remember my mother telling stories about untouched reefs, shipwrecks…

Over the years, I’ve gathered some nuggets of wisdom that you won’t find in Chapman’s Piloting & Seamanship or any other tome that purports to tell you everything you need to know. I’m not sure what to call these nuggets—maxims, old saws, axioms—but you might best call them “pearls,” for they will ring true many times in your boating adventures. My mother collected these pearls as other people collect stamps or baseball cards, and she taped and thumbtacked them to her bulletin board. These little truisms are as close as skippers get to haiku, that deceptively simple Japanese poetry where less says much. Most of these have been acquired through hard experience, although a few were passed down to me by mentors who had, yes, learned them that way. You…

These salmon sandwiches taste so wonderfully rich that every time I serve them, everyone assumes they’re gourmet. No one needs to know they’re a cinch to prepare by using canned salmon. The original recipe made a delectable cheese ball that my in-laws only served at Christmas parties. It was so delicious on crackers that I decided to try it as a filling inside croissants, and it became an instant hit. This recipe packs a flavor of its own, combining dill, onion, lemon and cream cheese for a sammy that will knock your britches off. And, this dish is an inexpensive source of protein and omegas. Winner, winner, salmon dinner. INGREDIENTS (serves 6) 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened¼ cup mayonnaise1 tablespoon lemon juice1 tablespoon onion, finely minced1 teaspoon prepared horseradish½…

Navigational electronics have become more reliable, but also increasingly intertwined and complex. When failures occur, they tend to come in two varieties: data suddenly disappears from one or more devices, or the whole system goes dark. If you cruise long enough, you will likely run into one of those scenarios. Let’s look at how different systems communicate and the troubleshooting possibilities to get your electronics back up and running. Looking For Clues Not too long ago, marine electronics consisted of single-function units that displayed narrowly defined information: radar on one display, location information on another, depth on another, and so forth. Some manufacturers started making it possible for data to be shared between units, say with main helm instruments and repeater units on the flybridge. Then, manufacturers realized that combining…

Bonaire is a Dutch island, one of the three “ABC” islands: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. Bonaire is the least-developed of the three—hence its unique beauty. As a longtime cruiser, I knew little about Bonaire outside of its reputation as a diving mecca of the Caribbean. The island is not exactly as well-known to boaters as, say, the more easily accessible St. Thomas or Tortola. But everything I had heard about Bonaire’s diving—pristine conditions, 54 official “walk-in” sites from the shore, another 31 mooring buoys for sites accessible by boat, 6,700 acres of marine park with more than 60 species of coral and all kinds of fish—was enough to make this island a must-see destination for me. Bonaire is south of the hurricane belt, directly in the path of the Trades.…