Ocean Navigator - Ocean Navigator

20 Mar

A family braves the elements together

Bill MorrisHome Page Hero, Ocean Voyager, Offshore Sailing, Voyaging Skills

Jon and Megan Schwartz, along with their sons, Ronan, 16, and Daxton, 14, have been cruising full time aboard their Boreal 47, Zephyros, an aluminum expedition monohull, since 2017. Since picking up the boat at the factory in northern France, they have sailed 40,000 NM together. Driven by a desire to explore the world and experience its disappearing wilds, they have often pursued places less traveled. They started in northern France, the UK, Atlantic Spain and Portugal before heading into the Mediterranean for a season. The Paxtons then crossed the Atlantic Ocean from late 2018 to early 2019. They were…

01 Oct

Furuno leads the pack in 2021 NMEA Awards

Ocean NavigatorHome Page Hero, Ocean Navigator, Ocean VoyagingFuruno, marine electronics, NMEA, NMEA 0183, NMEA 2000, NMEA Awards

Most voyagers are probably most familiar with the initial NMEA as part of a networking designation, either NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2000. Maybe not as many could tell you that NMEA stands for the National Marine Electronics Association. Or that NMEA includes all the top marine electronics manufacturers or that the NMEA has a yearly conference at which the organization gives out awards in a variety of categories. This year marine electronics manufacturer Furuno was the overall winner, taking home seven awards, including the Technology Award for its NavNet TZT16F TZtouch 3 v2. The 2021 NMEA conference was held…

02 Jan

Notable New Titles — Plunge

Tim QueeneyGood Reads, Ocean Navigatormemoir, ocean voyaging, offshore sailing

Former liveaboard voyager and self-professed “citizen of the world,” Liesbet Collaert’s memoir Plunge is, like many other voyagers’ memoirs, an account of passages made, life aboard, dealing with gear failure, experiencing tropical beauty and a freedom tempered only by wind and weather. Yet, it would be unfair to only place the book in the category of sailing memoir. Plunge is also an affecting account of Collaert’s emotional life, her evolving relationship with her voyaging husband, Mark, and the losses and trade-offs that everyone, no matter afloat or ashore, must navigate. The memoir is bracingly honest about Collaert’s marriage and the…

02 Jan

The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier

Ocean NavigatorGood Reads, Ocean Navigator

The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier by Ian Urbina Alfred A. Knopf, New York 544 pages The basic premise of The Outlaw Ocean by Ian Urbina is a riff on the classic logic problem referred to commonly as “the prisoner’s dilemma.” We have treaties that protect the oceans and the people who sail upon them. And we have enforcement protocol for these treaties. But, while collectively we have incentive to enforce the treaties — thereby protecting our collective welfare (the cleanliness and health of the oceans’ ecosystems, the health of the fish and mammals that swim in…

01 Nov

Endeavour: The Ship That Changed the World

Ocean NavigatorGood Reads, Ocean Navigator

Endeavour: The Ship That Changed the World by Peter Moore Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2018 Talk about good timing: Just as British author Peter Moore was putting the finishing touches on his biography of HMS Endeavour and its multifarious 18th-century voyages, marine archaeologists in Rhode Island pinpointed its final resting place near Newport, where in 1778 it had been scuttled by the British to prevent the French fleet from attacking. Most historical books are about people, with boats, countries and conflicts as supporting characters. In a refreshing twist, Moore flips this formula and makes Endeavour the protagonist while James Cook,…

01 Nov

Sailing America

Ocean NavigatorGood Reads, Ocean Navigator

Sailing America by Onne van der Wal Introduction by Gary Jobson Rizzoli New York, 2019 In a magazine like Ocean Navigator, the photos play as big a part as the words, from the front cover all the way through. And we’ve been lucky to feature photos from some excellent photographers, including the Newport, R.I.-based dean of sailing photography: Onne van der Wal. His photos have graced several of our covers over the years and appeared inside the magazine as well. Now, van der Wal has assembled 200 of his photos depicting every aspect of sailing across the U.S. into a…

29 Aug

Supernavigators: Exploring the Wonder of How Animals Find Their Way

Ocean NavigatorGood Reads, Ocean Navigator

Supernavigators: Exploring the Wonder of How Animals Find Their Way by David Barrie The Experiment Publishing Co. 2019 When Cole Porter wrote, “And this is why birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it,” he was referring to falling in love. But as science continues to discover, he could also have been referencing the ability of these same creatures to navigate long distances and then find their way home, as described in David Barrie’s new book, Supernavigators: Exploring the Wonder of How Animals Find Their Way. Many of us are familiar with the amazing journeys of the…

27 Jun

Murder Aboard: The Herbert Fuller Tragedy and the Ordeal of Thomas Bram

Ocean NavigatorGood Reads, Ocean Navigator

Murder Aboard: The Herbert Fuller Tragedy and the Ordeal of Thomas Bram by C. Michael Hiam Murder Aboard jumps right into the action: An 11-person crew of the barquentine Herbert Fuller departs Boston with a load of timber in July 1896, bound for Buenos Aires. Also on board is a young Harvard dropout, a gentleman with a frail constitution who thought the southern climate would settle his nerves. He is sailing as the ship’s one passenger and shares the aft cabin with the captain and the captain’s wife. Within days of departure, when the ship is far offshore, the captain,…

28 Feb

Sailing to the Edge of Time

Ocean NavigatorGood Reads, Ocean Navigator

Sailing to the Edge of Time by John Kretschmer Adlard Coles 2018 Sailing to the Edge of Time is a splendid book of nautical lore and, in its way, a profound book — a philosophical inquiry into the seductive enticement of seafaring. John Kretschmer is a professional mariner. A former delivery skipper and now, at 59, owner and master of a Kaufman 47 cutter, Quetzal, he makes his living conducting deepwater training passages on trans-Atlantic runs and in the Caribbean and eastern Med. “Yes, people pay for the torment I promise to dispense,” he tells us, “which strikes land people…

31 Dec

Winter Passage: Essays, Memoirs, Journeys

Ocean NavigatorGood Reads, Ocean Navigator

Winter Passage: Essays, Memoirs, Journeys Six Mile Creek Press by Alan Littell Longtime newspaperman, travel writer and Ocean Navigator contributor Alan Littell has compiled a volume of his writings that demonstrates both his globetrotting experience and his keen skill at eyewitness journalism. This reflective collection of essays speaks to the power of nature, the tug of memory and the insights of travel for those with open eyes. Two of the essays were first published in ON. The title essay, “Winter Passage,” is a 1960 account of a trans-Atlantic crossing aboard a freighter, back when merchant ships still booked passengers. The…