Ocean Navigator - Ocean Navigator

01 Jan

Don't leave without customs clearance

Ocean NavigatorUncategorized

When we arrived at Fanning Island in the Republic of Kiribati, we presented a letterhand-written on a piece of notebook paperto a customs official. The letter was signed by the French caretaker of an otherwise uninhabited U.S. atoll and was a far cry from the official zarpe, or departure clearance, that we should have carried with us from the U.S. Although we hadn't intended to visit Kiribati, it had become our best hope for obtaining entrance into a foreign port. If Kiribati turned us away, we had visions of becoming a modern-day Flying Dutchman, sailing forever but unable to land.…

01 Jan

House sail' shades southeast glass wall

Ocean NavigatorShort Tacks

To the editor: I would like to offer a more seaman-like solution than pasting up paper to screen your handsome new offices from the sun (Chartroom Chatter, Issue 119, Jan.⁄Feb. 2002). I had a similar problem several years ago with the morning sun flooding a two-story living room that presented a glass wall to the southeast. Furniture, floor and paintings were fried, and I was determined to find a better solution than turning the entire room beige or blocking the view with a cat's cradle of curtains and drawstrings. So I sunk four stainless steel eyes in the four corners…

01 Jan

Bird's-eye view

Ocean NavigatorUncategorized

From Ocean Navigator #108 September/October 2000 Stand around a boat show full of electronics exhibits and you'll soon observe that few of our era's amazing navigation tools have more pure "wow" factor than electronic photo maps. Seeing a vessel plotted on a harbor chart-scale aerial photograph alongside the equivalent real chart is startling and intriguing. Everybody wants to see their home harbor. "Hey, there's a bird's-eye view of my marina. Hey, there's what that ledge actually looks like. Wow." Electronic photo maps lend an air of realism to electronic navigation. Here are two Florida keys as displayed by PhotoNavigator on…

01 Jan

Brad Van Liews Record Run

Ocean NavigatorOffshore Sailing

Around Alone sailor Brad Van Liew set a new World Sailing Speed record this weekend when he ran 345.03 miles from 0300 GMT on Saturday to 0300 GMT Sunday. On this final stretch of his run to Capetown and the finish of Leg 2, Van Liew clocked an average of 14.37 knots, the longest distance sailed by a 50-foot monohull sailboat for a 24-hour period. If verified by the World Sailing Speed Council, Van Liew will have broken J.P. Mouligne's 1998-'99 Around Alone record aboard Cray Valley. On Monday morning, Dec. 25, Van Liew was approximately 480 miles from Capetown…

01 Jan

Swedish inventor going 'round again

Ocean NavigatorOffshore Sailing

Sven Yrvind, the Swedish sailor and inventor formerly known as Sven Lundin, is hard at work building another of his funky sailboats this time for an ambitious east-about solo circumnavigation that includes Tristan de Cunha Island, Tasmania, and Cape Horn. His latest vessel, Bris Orädd, a 22-footer with a thick foam core and polyester fiber skin, incorporates the inventor's passionate belief in utilizing the latest technology in unconventional ways. Yrvind has made numerous high-seas voyages aboard his various little craft, including a transatlantic with his artist wife Olga in a 15-footer; to Tristan de Cunha in a 20-footer; and around…

01 Jan

Captain Bligh's Portable Nightmare

Ocean NavigatorOffshore Sailing

Captain Bligh's Portable Nightmare4,162 miles across the Pacific in a rowing boatby John TooheyThe fastidious cartographer and right-hand man of Capt. James Cook fell in reputation from one of the highest positions in the Royal Navy to one of infamy. A slight by a sycophantic crewmember, in a posthumously published account of the voyage of Resolution, kept Bligh from the fame and wealth accorded many of those who had also sailed with Cook in lesser positions. He then went on to lose command of Bounty and spend many months adrift in an open boat before fetching Tahiti. John Toohey's gripping…

01 Jan

Don't forget to put your boat aground

Ocean NavigatorShort Tacks

The recent article by Gordon Wyatt on antennas ("Homemade antenna," Issue No. 90) was very interesting and practical. However, no mention was made of the fact that a proper grounding or counterpoise system must be included with all HF long-wire or insulated backstay installations. In fact, a proper seawater ground is the key to good performance. As mentioned in the article, the antenna coupler will match the 50-ohm output impedance of the transceiver to the long wire, but only if a ground is attached to the coupler. I have experimented with such antennas for the past 20 years and have…

01 Jan

Myth. Fact. and Navigators' Secrets: Incredible Tales of the Sea and Sail

Ocean NavigatorUncategorized

Readers of these pages will no doubt recognize the author of Myth, Fact, and Navigators' Secrets as the long-time writer of the quirky nautical history column "Looking Astern." Dill's passion for oddball maritime tales blossoms in this book. He details adventures and misadventures alike in his collection of short stories - sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic. He describes the origins of maritime firsts (submarines, aircraft carriers, flying boats) and notable historical figures such as the debaucherous Samuel Pepys, the honorable-to-the-end naval captains of the War of 1812, the strange story of the original Henry Morgan and innovations in nautical science. Dill's…