The New Revolution in Tide and Current Predictions
11 Feb

The New Revolution in Tide and Current Predictions

David BurchNavigation, Ocean Voyaging, Offshore Safety, Offshore Sailing, Power Voyaging, Seamanship & Navigation, Seamanship & Navigation Newsletter
We had one tidal revolution in 2021 when NOAA announced that they were discontinuing the decades-long use of Table 2 lists of secondary station corrections, and that there will no longer be any sanctioned annual Tide and Current Tables. Plus there will no longer be any international tidal data published by NOAA. Going forward, the way we get official tide and current predictions is go to tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov and create a monthly or annual table for specific stations as PDFs and then print them. It takes four pages per year, per station. This is a superior system, as we rarely needed…
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23 Jul

Breaking in a New Mainsail

Bill MorrisNewsletter, Seamanship & Navigation Newsletter
A circumnavigation and dozens of coastal cruises gradually turned the new, 8-ounce Dacron polyster mainsail I purchased back in 2000 into a flimsy, dirty, patched, salt-encrusted quilt, finally forcing me to order a new mainsail from Rolly Tasker a few months ago. My 1966 Cal 30 sloop Saltaire would normally carry a 6-ounce mainsail for coastal sailing, but an offshore environment of strong winds, salt spray and long hours of exposure to the sun required a tough beast, strong and durable enough to sustain many more years of abuse. Using the old, 8-ounce cruising mainsail as a starting point, I…
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Navigational lights
26 May

Navigational lights

Ocean NavigatorSeamanship & Navigation Newsletter, Web Exclusive
Navigational lights located on aids to navigation can provide an excellent way to verify your position when coming into coastal waters. Here are some factors to remember when dealing with navigational lights on lighthouses, lighted daymarks, light towers and buoys.  Characteristics  Navigational lights are given a characteristic light pattern to help mariners identify the light. These range through a variety of types:  Fixed Single occulting (light is on longer than it is off), group occulting, composite group occulting  Isophase (light is on as long as it is off)  Single flashing (light is off longer than it is on), group flashing,…
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22 Mar

Repairing a 10-ton mast — without a crane

Eric ForsythSeamanship & Navigation Newsletter
Editor’s note: This installment of the newsletter is a companion piece to the Seamanship and Navigation newsletter of November 2021 that detailed a repair at sea of the clipper ship Cutty Sark. This time, Eric Forsyth looks at a feat of seamanship from the era of the last sailing merchant ships — an impressive foremast repair made by the captain and crew of the steel ship British Isles. British Isles was a heavy ship, typical of the freight-carrying square riggers that ended the age of sail. She was built in Scotland and launched in 1884 with a registered tonnage of…
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