Ocean Navigator - Ocean Voyager 2023

Voyagers of their own design

Liveaboards and cruisers since 1997, Rudy and Jill Sechez built both of their cruising boats, first a 36-foot wooden cutter, and later, their current 34-foot sail-assisted wooden trawler Briney Bug, which they designed themselves. The Sechezes are interesting because they are something of an outlier among modern liveaboard voyagers in the way they stress radical simplicity. In their approach to voyaging, they strive to operate their vessel with a minimum of systems on board. Their cruising grounds are primarily Florida and the Bahamas. Over the years they have also traveled the east coast of the U.S., some of the Great…

Talking local

The mad rush to keep up with rapid advances in electronics for offshore sailing vessels can get our heads spinning. Every time we invest in the latest satellite telephone, WiFi-capable chartplotter or virtual instrument display, a newer, better unit enters the market, and many of us cannot wait to invest in the most current technology. If there is one piece of equipment always evolving and always worth having in the latest version, however, it is the humble VHF radio. Over the last 30 years of coastal and offshore sailing, I personally have owned four permanent-mount VHF radios and two handhelds,…

Rainy Day Tools and Parts

Your greatest protection against mechanical breakdown is preventive maintenance, but if you do have a problem, having the right tools and spares onboard, with the skills to use them, will keep you going on the water. Once you have the basic tools and start doing your own work, your tool inventory will grow. So will your confidence regarding problem solving. When it comes to buying boat tools, don’t blow your cruising budget on high end, or even new tools. The best way to build your kit is from mismatched, garage sale items that you don’t care about damaging, altering, or…

For an ex-Navy aviator and a former flight attendant, self-reliance comes first

David and Booker Deakyne live and voyage aboard their Privilege 45 catamaran Tortuguita. Formerly a charter boat in the Caribbean, Tortuguita was purchased by a Belgian sailor who took the boat to Cuba for several years. Since spare parts were not readily available the boat fell into a state of disrepair. The boat was brought to Florida for sale and the Deakynes purchased it there in 2006. Dave then spent three months rebuilding the vessel’s systems before sailing it back to their home in New Jersey. They characterize that first voyage on their website this way: “Not much worked in…

Weather Briefings

The definition of a weather briefing from the Glossary of Meteorology, published by the American Meteorological Society is: “Oral commentary on existing and expected meteorological conditions.” A further definition is given in the same publication for a Pilot Weather Briefing is: “Oral commentary on the observed and forecast weather conditions along a route, given by a forecaster to the pilot, navigator, or other air crew member prior to takeoff.” These definitions were created many years ago when the resources available were more limited in terms of graphics and in terms of longer range forecasts. In fact, most pilot briefings were…

Medical questions

Editor’s Note: Beth VandeGeijin is a Nurse Practitioner with more than 25 years experience in internal medicine and is currently in a solo practice. She’s been cruising (Chesapeake Bay to Grenada) on her 45-foot Freedom sloop rig and is a member of the Seven Seas Cruising Association. We asked her about how voyagers might want to get ready for dealing with medical issues when offshore. OV: As a voyager with medical training and experience, how much training do you think voyagers need? BV: It often depends on where they are going. Many of the larger islands in the Caribbean and…

After many thousands of ocean miles, a few good voyages yet to come

At the end of the last century, Dick and Gail Barnes disengaged from the workforce and community volunteer life and began consulting while waiting for the commissioning of a new Nordhavn 50 trawler-style motor vessel. Dick was the President of a natural gas distribution company and a pipeline transmission company. When home in Anchorage, Gail remains active as a volunteer at the Alaska Native Medical Center. Soon after moving from San Diego to Anchorage in 1966 they purchased an aluminum skiff; in 1971 they built a 19-foot rough-water river boat, and in 1991 bought a 28-foot Sea Sport cabin cruiser.…

Getting Covered

Getting marine insurance in the continental US and Canada is simple enough. Most homeowners can add a boat to their home insurance policy. Geico, Progressive and other major retail insurance companies offer marine insurance, but they are typically limited to boats less than 50 feet worth less than $2.5 million. Even with this limitation the major carrier approach sounds like it might work for Robin and Dale, a couple in their mid-thirties living in Annapolis, Md. They just bought a well-equipped 1999 Island Packet 35 for $150,000. The boat is set up for offshore voyaging, with a watermaker, generator, galvanic…

The never ending lesson

Have you ever been in an uncomfortable at-anchor situation? A fisherman friend told me once that anchoring is about 70 percent of boating. Maybe, for some people, but I see a lot of folks sweating it out, and a lot of boats bumping and/or crashing into each other. How could this be? Little or no experience - the test first and the lesson afterwards and we live and learn. Here are some thoughts on anchoring that voyagers can take to heart. Once while anchored on a voyage, I had to confront just such an unexpected anchoring situation. My mariner’s eye…

Fiddler’s Green

Mike Birch Canadian ocean racer Mike Birch passed at age 90, on October 26, 2022 in Brittany, France. Birch is famous on the ocean racing circuit for winning the first Route du Rhum Race in 1978 from Saint Malo to Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe aboard the 30-foot Walter Greene-designed trimaran, Olympus Photo. Birch became well known as an ocean racer but didn’t start out that way. He was born in Vancouver B.C. and was a gold miner, then on oil driller and even a cowboy. He didn’t start sailing seriously until he was 44 years old. After work as a delivery…