Cruising World June/July 2021

Want to talk about a coincidence? When I first spoke with Spike Lobdell, president of New England Science & Sailing, he’d just accepted US Sailing’s Outstanding Community Sailing Program Award for 2013. We met during a break at a US Sailing summit in San Diego and chatted about the program he helped launch in Stonington, Connecticut, how it had begun as an idea for a different sort of inclusive yacht club, and how it had evolved into a community sailing center with a strong emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math education for kids, as well as learn-to-sail programs for adults. Then this spring, out of the blue, I got an email from him offering an update on the program, which this summer will mark the 20th season of community sailing…

Sun rays beamed down into the deep blue water, illuminating the faded rope that ended in a small weight, hanging just barely in sight in the clear Fijian sea. I held onto the buoy the rope was tied to, floating at the surface and staring at the weight 20 meters below me. I was familiar with this depth as a concept; I’d scuba-dived around it and Cayuse could anchor in it, but I’d never thought about sending my body down there unaided, willfully. I’d been sailing with my parents on Cayuse, an Outremer 51, for a year at this point; we were circumnavigating with the World ARC. After graduating college I had joined them, and while sailing itself took up most of our time, I needed a new hobby to give…

I really enjoyed the tools article by Marga Pretorius (“What’s In Her Bag,” April 2021) and appreciate her insights. Without question, I picked up a few hints, so in the interest of sharing, let me offer one. Never, never, ever use a Phillips screwdriver for anything! This tool was developed for one-time screw installations by unskilled labor. The head is designed to slip if too much torque is applied. Fine for putting a screw in, not so good for removal. After years of stripping screw heads while restoring Japanese and European motorcycles, I finally learned of JIS drivers. These look like Phillips and come in the same sizes, but the crosshatch is just different enough to keep them from stripping the screw head. All those years when I thought Japanese…

Laying quiet on the northern corner of St. Vincent is La Soufriere, a volcano that has been dormant for more than 40 years. Dormant, that is, until the morning of April 9, 2021, when intense pressure built up and sent hot ash rocketing up into the atmosphere. At the time, my family and I were sitting blissfully on anchor 20 miles away aboard Atea, our 50-foot Ganley Solution, in Princess Margaret Bay on the southern end of Bequia, part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Windward Islands. The island offers a relaxed Caribbean atmosphere that draws in tourists and cruisers alike. Its large protected bay is lined by a collection of beach bars, restaurants and quaint hotels—all quieter this year due to the reduced tourism brought on by COVID.…

Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World By Andrea Pitzer (2021, Scribner; $29) Ice. Desolation. The sea. For some people like me, this collection of words attached to a story makes it irresistible. Icebound is about William Barents, a Dutch explorer who at the end of the 16th century tried to go over the top of the world to reach China via what was then thought to be a warm polar sea. He and his small crew sailed from Amsterdam in a 60-foot wooden sailing ship with a 16-foot beam stuffed with trading goods, and the food, tools and clothing needed for a voyage, only to end up at a desolate, rocky island hemmed in by ice and lousy with polar bears. Their exploits were recorded for posterity in a mate’s…

A proposed Trans-Isthmus Corridor project across Mexico would connect the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean by rail and highway, which could serve as an alternative to the Panama Canal. When completed, cruisers could potentially haul out and truck their boat the relatively short distance from one side of the isthmus to the other. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is urging approval to build transportation along the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Nearly 190 miles across, the isthmus is the narrowest landmass in Mexico. Cargo companies and private-vessel owners view the proposed project as an overland alternative to the Panama Canal, which many cruisers know can be intimidating, expensive, lengthy and sometimes dangerous. Mexico sees the Panama Canal as a monopoly, and this project as an opportunity to help customers with a…