SAIL

a new year of sailing

The past 12 months have been tragic, troubling and downright strange. If there’s been a silver lining to the situation, though, it’s been the way so many sailors have still found a way to take to the water—that and the way it appears countless newbies have decided to take up sailing as well. And, no, I’m not just saying that because it’s been good for the boatbuilding industry (though it’s always good to see the business side of sailing succeed). The reason I find the phenomenon of all the sailing that’s been going on so satisfying is it speaks to what’s best in humanity. In late 2020, as the pandemic continued to rage essentially unchecked, I wrote on this same page that “so long as human beings continue sailing there’s…

the sailing scene

Are you out there sailing, cruising and living the sailing life? Share your experiences with other readers. Send your photos to sailmail@sailmagazine.com And don’t forget to sign up for our free eNewsletter, Under Sail, via our website sailmagazine.com Sunset from our little 1986 Catalina 22 in Perdido Bay, between Alabama and Florida. Heading back to our slip in Perdido Beach, Alabama.— Mark Robinson, Pensacola, FLHere is a photo from SV Conina. She is anchored at Forney Cove Santa Cruz island, California. Watching a beautiful sunset in June.— Patrick Luhn, via sailmail@aimmedia.comThough coronavirus put the kibosh on most events for this year’s St. Augustine Race Week, organizers were able to pull off the youth regatta, which brought together many of Florida’s best young sailors. Look at the lines on those boats!— Capt. Robert…

letters

TIP FOR TOM I have a Yanmar 3GM30F auxiliary on my boat that had the same problem Tom Cunliffe speaks of (Cruising Tips, May 2020). The alternator belt didn’t just slip, it would wear at a prodigious rate. The belt had to be re-tensioned approximately every two running hours, and the engine compartment would fill with black soot from the decay of the belt. I soon understood why the previous owner had two spares in the nav station. The pulleys were in alignment with no wobble or distortion. A Yanmar rep told me that it was the result of rust accumulation on the pulleys in the off-season, so I buffed the V channels and actually applied a thin film of oil before the start of last season to “run them in.”…

for the love of sailing

The Cruising Club of America, an organization of about 1,300 off shore sailors, has been honoring remarkable ocean voyages and seamanship with an array of prestigious awards for nearly 100 years. The club’s highest honor, the Blue Water Medal, has recognized renowned and little-known sailors alike, from Sir Robin Knox-Johnston to the British mariners who rescued untold thousands of Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940. The CCA also gives an award for acts of exceptional seamanship and rescue, and most recently (in 2016) established what it calls its Young Voyager Award, recognizing “a young sailor who has made one or more exceptional voyages.” The inaugural awardee was polar voyager Erik de Jong. Subsequent awards have gone to solo nonstop circumnavigator Jessica Watson, my husband, Seth, and me, and…

paying with sand dollars

The next time you visit the Bahamas you may find that the people there are carrying a lot less cash. And that’s a good thing. It’s not that they don’t have money, but that they’re using a new type of digital currency that they’re calling “Sand Dollars.” In a drive by the central bank to modernize the Bahamas’ payment system and move consumers away from a historical reliance on cash, Project Sand Dollar was designed as a pilot program and rolled out on Exuma in December 2019. It has been favorably received by the public, enough so that there are now plans to expand it to the entire country. In a press release the bank emphasized that the digital currency is not a cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, or a competitor to the Bahamian…

tracking and catching

Plastic waste—in the form of everything from plastic soda bottles to abandoned fishing nets—constitutes a major threat to the health of the world’s oceans. Giving the immense size of an ocean, though, actually finding all the plastic floating around out there in a time-efficient manner has been a major challenge—until now. Using GPS trackers and enlisting the aid of a wide range of mariners, professional and recreational alike, the Sausalito, California, based Ocean Voyages Institute has hit on a way of “tagging” big clumps of garbage and then using that same garbage to lead it to other garbage. The thinking behind this approach is that the ocean frequently “sorts debris,” so that a tagged fishing net can lead to other nets and a density of debris within a 15-mile radius. The result?…