Home Page Hero - Ocean Navigator

08 Aug

A racer’s thoughts on the 2022 PacCup

Tim QueeneyCrew's Picks, Home Page Hero, Ocean Voyaging, Pacific Cup Race2022 PacCup

In our July August issue we ran a Boat Focus piece on the Hanse 342, Twelve-Winded Sky, owned by Mark Jordan, describing Jordan's and his and his doubled-handed racing partner Randy Leasure's efforts to get the boat ready for the 2022 Pacific Cup Race from San Francisco to Hawaii. Jordan and Leasure competed hard in the race and they finished with an elapsed time of 16 days 21 hours, 59 minutes and 13 seconds. Though Jordan and Leasure came in last of nine boats in the Kolea DH1 division, they enjoyed their first PacCup and sounds like Jordan will be…

27 Jul

Stroke survivor completes transatlantic crossing

Tim QueeneyHome Page Hero, Ocean Voyagingdisabled voyagers, Nordhavn, ocean, power voyaging, transatlantic

Any transatlantic crossing is an achievement, no matter the vessel or the crew. For Nordhavn 40 owner Philippe Guglielmetti, however, his June/July 2022 crossing contained an impressive level of personal accomplishment. In 2015 Guglielmetti suffered a a pontine hemorrhagic stroke that left him in a wheelchair. Guglielmetti departed Miami aboard his Nordhavn 40, Embracing Life on May, 28 and arrived in Tarragona, Spain on July 12. The passage was completed in three legs: Miami to Bermuda, Bermuda to the Azores and Azores to Tarragona. Guglielmetti had other crew with him on the passage, the mix changing with each leg, but including Adelaide…

28 Jun

Solstice weather charts

Ken McKinleyHome Page Hero, Weather48 hour chart, 48 hour forecast, Atlantic surface forecast, highs, isobars, lows, NOAA, NWS, Pacific surface forecast, sea ice, troughs, weather, weather charts, weather fax, wind, wind direction, wind speed

For this newsletter, I thought it might be a good idea to look at a few surface forecast charts and go through the features of the charts. This has been done before, but it is always good to have a refresher for this material, and there have been a few changes in the charts in recent years. Then I realized that we have just passed the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, so it made sense to look at some charts produced on the summer solstice, and also to look back at the same charts produced on the winter solstice…

08 Jun

Autonomous Mayflower crosses Atlantic

Tim QueeneyHome Page Hero, Ocean VoyagingAI ship, autonomous ship, transatlantic

The original Mayflower brought a boatload of immigrants to America. Now a solar-powered trimaran named the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) — although it's a bit small for the designation "ship" — has crossed the Atlantic, helping to bring shipping into a new age of artificial intelligence (AI). With no crew aboard and navigating via AI alone, MAS finished a 2,700-mile (4,400km) passage from Plymouth, UK to Halifax in Nova Scotia on June 5. The 50-foot long MAS can make 10 knots and was controlled by AI developed by IBM. It uses six cameras and 50 sensors to obtain input from…

11 May

Newest GOES weather spacecraft

Tim QueeneyHome Page Hero, Ocean Voyagingforecasts, GOES, marine weather, NOAA, weather, weather satellites

NOAA released a photo today from its latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), GOES-18. The image shows the Western Hemisphere from 22,236 miles out into space. GOES-18 was launched on March 1, 2022 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This latest version of the GOES line has an Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument that can see Earth using 16 different channels, each measuring energy at different wavelengths along the electromagnetic spectrum. This allows the satellite to gather data about Earth’s atmosphere, land, and ocean. This is good news for voyagers, as better imagery translates into better marine forecasts. From the press release: "GOES-18…

02 May

An Unauthorized Boarding

Michael HaywardHome Page Hero, Ocean Voyaging, Offshore Sailing

An Unauthorized Boarding While cruising in the Caribbean following a crossing of the South Atlantic, on Rebecca Childress’ Valiant 40, Brick House, we arrived in Buccament Bay on St. Vincent. We were accompanied by a buddy boat: solo sailor friend Paul Teabo aboard his Island Packet 36, Getting There. What followed was an unfortunate and thankfully rare brush with crime while cruising. We both anchored in the northwest corner of the bay, near a friendly fishing village. Rebecca and I have strict security protocols, and at night, we hoist the dinghy, secure it with a cable and lock, and leave…

15 Apr

Rudder problems snag voyagers

Tim QueeneyHome Page Hero, Ocean Voyagingemergency steering, ocean voyaging, offshore sailing, rudder failure, steering problems, USCG, USCG cutter, USCG Joseph Gerczak

One of the most difficult gear failures for a voyaging boat is rudder/steering problems. Losing the ability to steer makes getting to the next available port a priority. Jury-rigged steering approaches can work, but call for having the proper materials on board and result in greatly reduced performance and crew fatigue working an often unwieldy emergency steering system. These drawbacks of emergency steering make the case for rigorous maintenance and troubleshooting of your rudder/steering setup prior to departure on a passage. A recent incident off Hawaii brings home the importance of this issue. On April 14, 2022, the 154-foot Sentinel-class…

17 Mar

Puerto Vallarta Race – Roy P. Disney’s PYEWACKET 70 Sets New Record

Tim QueeneyHome Page Hero, Ocean Voyagingocean racing, Puerto Vallarta Race, Pyewacket 70, Roy Disney

Posted March 15, 2022 As the competitors in the 2022 Puerto Vallarta Race continue south in what is being reported as “great sailing conditions,” it is worth taking a moment to look at how this game has played out in the past. To start, Rio100 owns the elapsed time record set in 2016 at 3 ds, 5 hrs, 42 min, 43 sec. Both Rio100 and Pyewacket 70 have been rolling through the fleet like they’re in a car chase. The trackers are currently projecting both of them to finish ahead of the record, with Pyewacket 70 edging out Rio100 by about an hour, and knocking a little more than 4 hours…

08 Feb

Voyaging puppies

Tim QueeneyHome Page Hero, Ocean Voyaging, Web Exclusive

What if you were a liveaboard voyager and you not only brought a dog or two, but actually raised litters of pups on board and got them to families in the places you visited like the Philippines? Voyagers Luc and Jackie Callebaut have done that while living aboard their Norman Cross 46 trimaran Sloepmouche. Their two current Schipperke dogs are named Zonne and Zotke. These are the couple's two latest canine crew members, previous crew were dogs named Zoetje, Zenne, Zwetke. The Schipperke is a Belgian breed often found on canal boats. Not only have Luc and Jackie always had dogs aboard their…

12 Jan

Latest BOLO from Boatwatch.org

Tim QueeneyHome Page Hero, Ocean Voyaging, Web Exclusiveboat watch.org, BOLO, center cockpit, distress, missing voyagers, ocean voyaging, sailboat, voyaging, voyaging boat, voyaging sailboat

For voyagers in need of some help, the website Boatwatch.org does a great job of keeping track of vessels with distress issues and those boats that for some reason are late in arriving from passages. Below is a recent "be on the lookout" (BOLO) announcement from Boatwatch. Check in with Boatwatch.org to see their latest posts. You might be in a position to lend assistance. A Non Emergency Bolo has been issued for SV Breeze who left Curacao on January 5, 2022 and was due in at Shelter Bay Marina on January 9th or 10th. SV Breeze is a 44 foot…